Iranian Researchers Research Articles

Citation Practices in Applied Linguistics Research Articles: A Comparison of International and Iranian Journals

In academic writing, citation employs different phraseological patterns to serve a number of significant functions. The purpose of this study was to examine the citation practices in Iranian and international applied linguistics journals to determine how differently or similarly the two groups of journals use the citation in their writings. The data consisted of a corpus of 120 articles published by Iranian and international applied linguistic journals. WordSmith Tools (Scott, 2009) computer software was used to extract the citation patterns in different sections of the articles. Then, employing Petric’s (2007) and Thompson and Trimble’s (2001) frameworks, the phraseological patterns and rhetorical functions of citation practices were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results showed that Iranian researchers, unlike international researchers, tended to use integral citations by emphasizing the writers rather than information; yet, international researchers preferred non-integral citations. The results also revealed that there is a relationship between articles sections and the type of citations applied. Moreover, the analysis of citations based on Petric's (2007) framework demonstrated that Iranian and international writers prefer using attribution function. In conclusion, the study argued that the phraseological patterns used to report these functions should receive more attention to avoid plagiarism.

A Comparative Study of Text Formality of Applied Linguistics Papers Written in English by Iranian and Native Speaking Researchers

International scientific communication is mostly conducted in English. Consequently, writing and publishing in English is of significant importance in academic settings. Alongside many other factors, proper academic writing has an appropriate level of linguistic formality. Research has shown that linguistic features can distinguish between formal and informal texts. Different scholars have utilized different methods to define and measure formality. The present study compares the degree of formality of applied linguistics articles written in English by native English speaking and Iranian non-native English speaking researchers by calculating their F-score, a measure of formality introduced by Heylighen and Dewaele (1999). In total, 80 articles were selected from four international journals. Half of them were written by Iranian non-native researchers and the other half by native researchers. The results indicated a medium level of formality in both groups. However, articles written by Iranian non-native researchers were found to have a significantly higher degree of formality. Broadly, this research has implications for teachers of English in different areas, journal editors, materials developers and researchers who want to publish

Importance of Diakonoff’s Research in Recognition of the Median Period in Iran

The history of the Median period written by Igor Mikhailovich Diakonoff (published in 1956) was translated to Persian by Karim Keshavarz in 1345 Solar year. This book was the product of profound and insightful research of this author that had been done by the request of Azerbaijan Science Academy in that time and its importance at the time of its publication and translation was immense as there had been no single book or other research publication directly covering this period in the Persian literature before. The available historical or archeological information on this period was only limited to the notes of Greek historians and some new western resources. Although those sources were valuable, they could not fill the vacant place of rigidly and accurately written resources for other researchers of this period because they were not based on direct data i.e. scripts, tablets and other archaeological data found during relevant excavations. The difference between Diakonoff’s research and other resources is that he first gives comprehensive information concerning resources from this period, then fully assesses them, and additionally describes the geographical and historical aspects. This makes Diakonoff’s Median book an exceptionally accurate resource in this regard and therefore even after several decades it still remains so important in Iranology and cognition of Iranians. In fact, one can see the immense impact of Diakonoff’s research on the field of the Median history since the translation time until the present time. It has always been one of the main sources cited in historical, linguistic, ethnological, archaeological and interdisciplinary studies by Iranian researchers.

Iranian COVID-19 Publications in LitCovid: Text Mining and Topic Modeling

COVID-19 is a threat to the lives of people all over the world. As a result of the new and unknown nature of COVID-19, much research has been conducted recently. In order to increase and enhance the growth rate of Iranian publications on COVID-19, this article aims to analyze these publications in LitCovid to identify the topical and content structure and topic modeling of scientific publications in the mentioned subject area. The present article is applied research performed by using an analytical approach as well as text mining techniques. The statistical population is all the publications of Iranian researchers in LitCovid. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Python were used to analyze the data and implement text mining and topic modeling algorithms. Data analysis shows that the percentage of Iranian publications in the eight topical groups in LitCovid is as follows: prevention (39.57%), treatment (18.99%), diagnosis (18.99%), forecasting (7.83%), case report (6.52%), mechanism (3.91%), transmission (3.62%), and general (0.58%). The results indicate that patient, pandemic, outbreak, case, Iranian, model, care, health, coronavirus, and disease are the most important words in the publications of Iranian researchers in LitCovid. Six topics for prevention; four topics for treatment and case report and forecasting; three topics for diagnosis, mechanism, and transmission in general have been obtained by implementing the topic modeling algorithm. Most of the Iranian publications in LitCovid are related to the topic “pandemic status,” with 22.47% in the prevention category, and the lowest number of publications is related to the topic “environment,” with 11.11% in the transmission category. The present study indicates a better understanding of essential and strategic issues of Iranian publications in LitCovid. The results reveal that many Iranian studies on COVID-19 were primarily on the issues related to prevention, management, and control. These findings provided a structured and research-based viewpoint of COVID-19 in Iran to guide researchers and policymakers.

Forestry Research in the Middle East: A Bibliometric Analysis

Research trends in the field of forestry have experienced a significant evolution in recent years. However, there has been little use of bibliometric analyses to assess academic organizations and individual researchers in this field of science. This study investigates the progress of forestry research in Iran, Israel, and Turkey based on a bibliometric analysis of 2482 documents published between 2005 and 2019 and indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) scientific information platform. The countries were analyzed and compared in terms of the number of documents, the number of citations, the mean number of citations per document, the h-index, the share of funded articles, and several other metrics. A complete keyword network with graphical visualization and cluster analysis was also used for depicting the most frequent keywords used by the authors from these three countries. The results showed that the number of publications on forestry research grew steadily during the study period. Turkey, with 1529 documents, was the most active in publishing research in the field of forestry, followed by Iran (726 documents) and Israel (219 documents). Turkey’s publications received 11,220 citations with a cooperation coefficient (CC) of 0.587 that revealed a strong relationship between international collaboration with the USA, Germany, and Italy, and the number of citations, such that the articles with co-authors affiliated to foreign institutions were cited far more often than the articles with Turkish authorship. Although Iran (CC = 0.680) and Israel (CC = 0.706) recorded more activities in international collaboration than Turkey, their publications received much lower citations (Iran’s citations = 4433, Israel’s citations = 3939). Israel had 136 articles (62%) that received research funding, followed by Turkey and Iran with 604 (39%) and 284 (38%) articles. Nine out of the ten most popular journals among Israeli researchers were ranked as quartiles 1 and 2 in the forestry category, whereas Iranian and Turkish researchers mostly published in fewer journals ranked as quartiles 1 and 2. The most frequent keywords (i.e., topics) were species, condition, forest, and tree. Insights provided here can help balance research activities towards publishing more informed and effective scientific articles.

Critical Evaluation of the Sources in Regional Studies of the Modern and Contemporary Art in the Islamic World

In this article, the most important books on modern and contemporary art in Islamic lands were examined; these studies were divided into five categories: first, the books that studied the art of this region under the concept of “modern / contemporary Islamic art”, second, the books that studied under the title of “Middle Eastern Art”. Third, books that have followed Islamic art under the title “Arab Art”. Fourth, books that studied the Islamic art under nationalist narratives such as Iran, Arab, or Turkey art, and fifth, books under more general headings such as “Islamic Visual Culture” or Image Policy in Islamic Countries have been studied. Examining these resources is for three reasons: First, it enables researchers to compare approaches and methods in regional studies of Islamic art. Second, unfortunately, in Iran, there is not enough knowledge of the art of neighbors and other Islamic countries; therefore, reviewing the sources of regional art studies enables researchers to get acquainted with the most important sources and researchers in regional studies of art in Islamic countries. Third, by critically evaluating sixty important books in the study of modern and contemporary art in Islamic lands, we do emphasize the aspects that studies less than other aspects in this field were studied, and show the contribution of Iranian researchers in the regional studies of Islamic art.

The Effects of Non-pharmacological Interventions on Sleep Quality in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background & Aims of the Study: Sleep disorders are highly prevalent in individuals with diabetes. Iranian researchers have used various interventions to improve sleep quality in diabetic patients. This meta-analysis study was performed to determine the effects of the interventions performed on improving sleep quality among diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: Several databases, including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Science Direct, Medline EMBASE, as well as Persian databases (SID & IranMedex) were searched until 23 September 2020. The applied keywords were “sleep, sleep quality, diabetes, and diabetes mellitus”. Meta-analysis was performed in Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software. Results: A total of 8 published articles were entered in this meta-analysis. The obtained results suggested a significant heterogeneity between all articles included in this meta-analysis (I2=74.09, Q=27.016, P=0.0001). The STD Mean for the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score in diabetic patients after the intervention in the case group was 0.84 higher than that in the control group. Researchers found no publication bias in this study. The STD Mean for the PSQI score in diabetic patients before and after the intervention in the case group was equal to 0.64. Conclusion: All interventions were performed to improve sleep quality in diabetic patients who were eligible for this meta-analysis, and significantly improved sleep quality in them.

Factors influencing acceptance or rejection by Iranian medical researchers of invitations to peer review

Background: Peer review is a necessary but costly and time-consuming process to identify good-quality and methodologically sound articles and improve them before publication. Finding good peer reviewers is often difficult. Objective: To identify the incentives that make Iranian biomedical researchers accept invitations to be a peer reviewer and factors that affect these incentives. Methods: Twelve reviewers selected at random from the reviewers pool of each of 26 biomedical journals published from Fars province, Iran, were surveyed using a questionnaire that we had developed and tested in a pilot study of 30 reviewers (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.779). The data included the reviewers’ demographics, history of their reviews, and choice of 11 reasons each for accepting or declining the invitation to review. Results: A total of 233 reviewers completed the questionnaire. The most important reasons for accepting the invitation to review were the journal’s practice to publish the names of the reviewers alongside the article they had reviewed, acknowledgement by the journals by publishing the names of reviewers once a year, free access to journals’ content, and lower publication charges as authors. The most common reasons to decline the invitation were lack of time, busy schedules, and lack of sufficient incentive to review. Conclusion: Acknowledgement by the journal, offering to publish the names of reviewers alongside the articles they had reviewed, and monetary rewards will be effective incentives for biomedical researchers in Iran to serve as peer reviewers.

Requirements for Third Generation University: A Conceptual Review of Iranian Studies

Introduction: For more than a decade, Iranian researchers have been concerned about the third- generation university and have conducted various studies in this field. Collecting and analyzing the ideas presented in these studies may pave the way for finding a path for transformation into third-generation university. This study tries to introduce the requirements of moving Iranian universities towards the third generation university by reviewing reliable articles. Methods: This study formed on the conceptual review method using the framework introduced by Arksey and O'Malley in eight steps. All original articles of the last three years (2017-2019) in journals with scientific-research index were extracted from the database for information of national publication and the database of the Scientific Information Center for education, culture and research. By considering the exclusion criteria, 12 articles remained in this study. Result: Conceptual review of articles, separation and recombination of components led to the formation of 9 intra-university requirements divided into: intermediate requirements (entrepreneurship culture and development), basic requirements (vision, mission, goals and strategy, and management and leadership), and providing platform and support (entrepreneurial policy-making, and university development). Conclusion: It appears that the proposed model in this study is suitable for starting to move towards university entrepreneurship and taking the first steps. Of course, depending on the growth rate of entrepreneurship in each university, intense studies of these requirements may be necessary.

Relationship between altmetric and bibliometric indicators across academic social sites in article-level: the case of Iranian researchers' “Top Papers” in clinical medicine

PurposeThe study aimed to measure scientific and social impacts of Iranian researchers' “Top Papers” in clinical medicine using citation and altmetric indicators.Design/methodology/approachIn this applied descriptive-analytical study, it used scientometric analysis. A total of 166 “Top Papers” of Iranian researchers in clinical medicine category of Web of Science (WoS) database including “Highly Cited Papers” and “Hot Papers” published between 2009 and 2019 were used. Overall, 29 indicators and their data were extracted from WoS, Scopus, ResearchGate (RG) and PlumX in March 2020.FindingsThe results showed that there exists a positive correlation between the number of citations in WoS, Scopus, RG, PubMed and Crossref. In addition, it was found that there existed a positive correlation between the received citations by articles and altmetric indicators. According to the results, there is a strong correlation between RG Research Interest and citation impact. The correlation analysis on the Plum Analytics categories including “Usage”, “Capture”, “Mention”, “Social Media” and “Citation” showed the correlations between five dimensions of impact were positive and significant. The results have led the authors to think more about new metrics that can response to new developments in the new information areas.Research limitations/implicationsThere are limitations to access altmetric.com in Iran and cannot be used easily. On the other hand, because of considering 24 indicators, authors had to investigate only a sample of 166 top papers from Iranian researchers to present the detailed results. About nature of altmetric indicators, although they reflect the nonacademic impact of articles alongside bibliographic indicators, they still cannot be a complete representative of the influence of their owners.Practical implicationsThis study can indicate a practical application appropriate for the future study. It would be valuable to further examine how social academic platforms construct images of impact of research and how this impacts the social impact of the university as a mission. This study suggests that social media attention to academic research can be much greater than what is shown in traditional indicators such as citation.Originality/valueThis study examines 29 indicators from four platforms including RG, WoS, Scopus and PlumX, simultaneously and measures the relationship among them.

Iranian researchers' contributions to research on COVID-19: A bibliometric analysis and visualization.

Background: COVID-19 pandemic crisis motivated researchers worldwide to deeply investigate it from different perspectives. As Iran is one of the highly-affected countries by Covid-19, Iranian researchers have focused on studying it. This study aimed at analyzing and visualizing Iranian researchers' papers on COVID-19 from a bibliometric perspective. Methods: By searching MeSH-selected keywords related to COVID-19 in Scopus, Iranian researchers' papers on COVID-19 were extracted in a CSV format and underwent bibliometric techniques, such as coauthorship analysis, citation, and co-citation analysis, keyword and term co-occurrence mapping and etc. in the Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer software package. Results: A total of 405 papers were authored by Iranian researchers on COVID-19 during the study period, with the average number of citations per paper of 2.60 and a mean h-index of 15. The majority of papers were original articles in English. Archives of Clinical Infectious Diseases and Archives of Iranian Medicine and Medical Hypotheses were highly ranked publishing journals, respectively. The most productive institute and author were Tehran University of Medical Sciences with 119 papers and Rezaei, N. with 12 papers. Iranian researchers collaborated with the researchers of 73 countries, with the USA ranking first in Covid-19 research, followed by Italy, Canada, and United Kingdom. In publishing papers on COVID-19, Iran ranked first among the Middle Eastern countries and thirteenth internationally. Conclusion: Iranian researchers were active in 5 main areas of COVID-19 research, including epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, virology, and systematic review.

Investigating the status of transgenic crops in Iran in terms of cultivation, consumption, laws and rights in comparison with the world

Recently, there has been a development in transgenic technologies in many countries to meet nutritional needs of increasing worlds҆ population. However, there are some concerns about possible risks in the field of growing genetically modified (GM) food, such as threats of biodiversity and food allergies making their use a challenge. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the economic effects and political scopes of GM foods in production sector and policies made by different countries in the world and Iran. Moreover, essential (practical and legal) solutions and guidelines were provided for production and consumption of GM foods, which are useful for governmental entities, Iranian politicians, and consumers' rights. The latest situation of transgenic crops in the countries with which Iran has the highest exchange of agricultural products (including Turkey, Pakistan, and the European Union (EU)) was also studied. Although, Iran has been one of leading Asian countries not only in the field of transfer of technical knowledge of genetic engineering, but also in development of the specialized knowledge of biosafety, and despite production of several transgenic plant lines by Iranian researchers, unfortunately no GM crop has obtained release and cultivation license except for GM rice that its growing process was banned after change of government. According to findings of this study, in Iran, growing and production process of GM crops does not follow the global trend owing to scientific and legal infrastructures.

Evidence Gap and Knowledge Map of Physical Activity Research in Diabetes in Iran: A Scoping Review.

ContextThe important role of physical activity in the prevention and management of diabetes necessitates a review of current research to shed light on gaps in national diabetes guidelines.Evidence AcquisitionThis scoping review was part of the Iran Diabetes Research Roadmap (IDRR) study. A systematic search was used based on the Arksey and O'Malley method consisting of six steps. The descriptive analysis was done with SPSS software. Additionally, VOS veiwer software was used to draw the knowledge map of the included studies.ResultsThere were 169 articles included from the beginning of 2015 to the end of 2019 in Iran. Aerobic and resistance exercises were types of physical activity with more number of articles. Most of the included clinical studies were randomized clinical trials and had a level of evidence two. Also, there was more interest in outcomes such as glycemic control and insulin sensitivity, metabolic syndrome, metabolism, and cardiovascular health. The network of co-authorship was drawn, and "controlled study", "male", and "rat" were the most frequent keywords.ConclusionsThe number of Iranian diabetes researchers on physical activity is increasing, and the majority of clinical studies had a high level of evidence. With maintaining previous interests and investigations, there should be more emphasis on research in elderly and children age groups as evidence gap in Iran. Also, longitudinal cohort studies should be highlighted and Iranian researchers should be encouraged to participate in new topics of research worldwide.

Co-authorship network analysis of Iranian researchers on osteoporosis.

This study aims to investigate the pattern and characteristics of cooperation between Iranian researchers in the field of osteoporosis through the co-authorship social network analysis. All papers on osteoporosis with at least one Iranian author were retrieved from medical databases of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science from 2009 to 2019. After the removal of duplicates, the title and abstract of the papers were reviewed by two independent reviewers, and screening was performed according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data were entered into the BibExecl software, and the different spelling forms in the author names were manually merged. The authors' co-occurrence matrix was then developed and entered into the UCINET software and the cohesion indexes (density, diameter, and average distance) and centrality indexes (degree, betweenness, closeness, and eigenvector) for the co-authorship network were estimated. The institutions and countries of the authors of the entered papers were also used in the network analysis and their socio-graphs were drawn. We used 1328 documents in the analysis. The co-authorship network was constructed only for authors with at least 5 papers. The network had 183 nodes (authors) in 13 clusters. Its density was 0.063 and its number of components was 2. The large component encompassed 95.6% and the small component 4.4% of authors. The average distance in the main component of the network was 3 and its diameter was 6. Larijani B was ranked first in the network in terms of degree, betweenness, closeness, and eigenvector centrality. In terms of the contribution of organizations in osteoporosis publications, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (with 35.5% of papers published in WoS database), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (14.7%), and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (9.3%) retained in the first to third place, respectively. In papers published on the WoS, most Iranian authors have collaborated with authors from the USA, Belgium, Canada, and the UK respectively. The co-authorship network had low cohesion with slow information flow between its members. The collaboration with young researchers by the network's active, efficient, and broker authors will lead to the maintenance and development of the network.

Survivor and parent engagement in childhood cancer treatment in Iran.

In Iran (with a population of 83 million), 19,973 children were diagnosed with cancer from 2009 to 2019 (MAHAK Charity). This study was part of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology, Paediatric Oncology in Developing Countries Committee, ‘Patient, Family and Stakeholder Engagement Task Force’ engagement study in ten low- and middle-income countries in 2019. We documented childhood cancer survivors and parents’ experiences and quality of engagement, including perceptions and expectations, during their cancer treatment journey in Iran. Fourteen in-depth interviews and three focus group discussions were conducted by three Iranian qualitative researchers with 29 participants: recent adolescent/young adult survivors (12–20 years), long-term survivors (21–30 years) and parents [36–61 years (six mothers and four fathers)] from diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. Data were recorded, transcribed and analysed, and then translated from Farsi into English. Participants’ expectations included inter alia improved communication and information flow among the key stakeholders including doctors, nurses, parents and patients. A need for improved patterns of doctor–patient relationships and communication, more effective psychosocial support and the importance of peer support groups (for survivors and parents) were reported. Participants identified areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction regarding their actual engagement and decision-making. The dominance of a medical-only approach instead of multidisciplinary approach in care, the shortage of psychosocial support, the lack of an integrated system for providing information and delivering a package of printed material about the treatment journey and the absence of patient navigator in childhood cancer care systems were among obstacles for successful engagement of patients and parents throughout their cancer journey.

A National Survey of Iranian Academicians’ Attitudes Towards COVID-19 Vaccination

Background: Given the importance of using the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine in the control and prevention of this disease, the aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of Iranian medical and healthcare professionals regarding COVID-19 vaccination. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in August 2020. The target population was professors and researchers of Iranian universities of medical sciences. Data were collected using a questionnaire designed in a study on mapping global trends in vaccine confidence. The participants were invited through an online invitation to respond to the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and compared using the Chi-square test. Results: Out of 16500 invitations, 918 subjects participated in the study. Most of the participants were female (55.7%). Almost 51% of participants had a PhD degree. The results showed that 46.3% were not sure about the effectiveness and safety of the COVID-19 vaccine. The majority of participants (67.2 %) responded that the country has to provide the vaccine for free rather than paying the cost of the vaccine. Moreover, 73.0 % preferred the COVID-19 vaccine made in a foreign country to the COVID-19 vaccine made in their own country. The United States followed by Germany have been selected by most Iranian researchers to produce the COVID-19 vaccine. Conclusion: This study showed the high importance of creating a culture and raising the level of awareness and knowledge of the people before the preparation and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in the community.

A Comprehensive Survey of Proton Beam Therapy Research and Development in Iran

Purpose: Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) is an emerging radiotherapy technique using beams of proton to treat cancer. As the first report addressing the topic, the principal aim is to highlight the present status of PBT research and development in Iran as a developing country. Materials and Methods: To do so, the demand for PBT in Iran and Iran National Ion Therapy Center (IRNitc) was investigated and introduced. Then, Scopus and PubMed were searched for studies that dealt with PBT research in Iran and subsequently 6 major subfields of interest were identified. Furthermore, international collaborations were extracted from the bibliographic data. To combine both research and development sides, a SWOT analysis was performed through collecting viewpoints of 48 radiotherapy experts about PBT, and then strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of it were examined. Results: Iran contributes to approximately 1% of global PBT sciences. Proton dose calculation using Monte Carlo simulation is the dominant subject of interest for Iranian researchers. Italy is recognized as the major foreign partner in PBT researches. Clinical advantages over conventional radiotherapy modalities are the main strength of PBT development in Iran while the high installation cost remains the most weakness. Finally, 10 general considerations for the launching of a PBT facility in Iran were presented based upon both Iranian experts’ viewpoints and IAEA recommendations. Conclusion: This research reveals that while PBT research and development in Iran are still in their infancy, there are promising trends in both the research and development sides of PBT.

Iranian researchers' contributions to research on COVID-19: A bibliometric analysis and visualization

Background: COVID-19 pandemic crisis motivated researchers worldwide to deeply investigate it from different perspectives As Iran is one of the highly-affected countries by Covid-19, Iranian researchers have focused on studying it This study aimed at analyzing and visualizing Iranian researchers' papers on COVID-19 from a bibliometric perspective Methods: By searching MeSH-selected keywords related to COVID-19 in Scopus, Iranian researchers' papers on COVID-19 were extracted in a CSV format and underwent bibliometric techniques, such as coauthorship analysis, citation, and co-citation analysis, keyword and term co-occurrence mapping and etc in the Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer software package Results: A total of 405 papers were authored by Iranian researchers on COVID-19 during the study period, with the average number of citations per paper of 2 60 and a mean h-index of 15 The majority of papers were original articles in English Archives of Clinical Infectious Diseases and Archives of Iranian Medicine and Medical Hypotheses were highly ranked publishing journals, respectively The most productive institute and author were Tehran University of Medical Sciences with 119 papers and Rezaei, N with 12 papers Iranian researchers collaborated with the researchers of 73 countries, with the USA ranking first in Covid-19 research, followed by Italy, Canada, and United Kingdom In publishing papers on COVID-19, Iran ranked first among the Middle Eastern countries and thirteenth internationally Conclusion: Iranian researchers were active in 5 main areas of COVID-19 research, including epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, virology, and systematic review © 2021 Iran University of Medical Sciences

Is the Ratio of Retracted Iranian Papers Compatible With Their Research Growth Rate? An International Database Survey

Background: Retraction of articles occurs as a result of scientific misconducts or honest errors. Objectives: This study aimed to identify the frequency of retracted Iranian publications, compared to those of other countries and adjust them with influential parameters. Methods: All publications that were indexed on the Scopus database from 2008 to 2017 and then retracted, due to scientific misconduct were extracted through the Retraction Watch database and selected as the research community. To calculate the growth of retraction for each proposed country (or region), first, the rate of an absolute number of retracted papers for the years 2013-2017 was divided by the similar number for years 2008-2012, then this rate was adjusted to the retracted rate which is similarly computed for the total retracted statistics of the world. Results: Overall, 545 Iranian retracted publications from 2008 to 2017 were identified, of which 240 and 305 retracted articles were related to the first five years and the second five years of the study, respectively. The results showed that less than 1% (0.82) of all scientific articles published by Iranian researchers were retracted. However, the rate of retracted scientific articles in Iran compared to this rate in the world was significantly higher. Conclusion: Although retracted Iranian publications make up a small percentage of all Iranian publications, the number of retracted publications is increasing. It is important to recognize the reasons for scientific misconducts and to provide researchers with proper education.

Verification of abrupt and gradual shifts in Iranian precipitation and temperature data with statistical methods and stations metadata.

Climate time series may exhibit abrupt or gradual shift, due to non-climatic changes (e.g., the station relocation) or actual climate change of a region. This study presented a step-by-step methodology for detecting the climatic and non-climatic changes in annual precipitation ([Formula: see text]) and maximum ([Formula: see text]) and minimum ([Formula: see text]) air temperature data related to 37 weather stations across Iran, using the statistical methods and stations metadata. All data cover the common period of 1961-2014. Abrupt changes in climate data were detected using the non-parametric Pettitt test and the piecewise linear regression model, the gradual changes using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall (MK) test, and the magnitude of trends using the Sen's slope estimator. In addition, a two-sample t-test was used to consider whether means of the climate data have been significantly changed in the presence of change points recorded in stations metadata. Results indicated overall increasing trends in [Formula: see text] and[Formula: see text], with more increasing rate for [Formula: see text]. In case of precipitation, most stations indicated non-significant decreasing/increasing trends while six of them showed significant decreasing trends. The detected breaking points, mainly in [Formula: see text] were concurrent with the years of change in the original locations of 6 out of 37 stations. It was specified that the unreliable stations' data intensified the trend orientation and magnitude of climatic variables compared to the reliable ones. In addition, increasing rates in [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] (decreasing rate in[Formula: see text]) for the stations located in the urban areas were larger (smaller) than those in the non-urban areas. This research revealed the necessity of metadata for accurate interpretation of results obtained from the statistical methods. The study suggests to the Iranian climate researchers to employ with caution a homogeneous length of series rather than total inhomogeneous length of series.