WANA (Nov 21) – The updated 2025 list of highly cited researchers shows an 11% rise in the number of Iranian scientists included in this ranking compared to last year. According to Jafar Mehrad, senior professor at Shiraz University and founder of the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC), this new increase is based on Scopus data and compiled within the latest edition of the “Top 2% Highly Cited Scientists” list.

 

In an interview with reporters, Mehrad stated that this prestigious list highlights researchers who have demonstrated significant citation impact in their respective fields. He explained that this ranking serves as an important reference for universities, scientific institutions, and those interested in global scientific developments, as it helps track the flow of knowledge production around the world.

 

The ISC founder noted that evaluations cover 22 scientific fields and 174 subfields, and research impact indicators are calculated based on both career-long data and single-year citation data. He emphasized that some universities confuse these two indicators, which may lead to incorrectly labeling a researcher included in the single-year list as a “career-long top scientist”—a misunderstanding that requires clarification.

 

Referring to the growth in the number of Iranian researchers on the 2025 list, Mehrad said this increase reflects an improvement in the citation impact of researchers in the country, based on Scopus data. However, he reminded that “this list is merely a bibliometric snapshot and is not equivalent to the title of a top scientific researcher,” noting that even the list’s creators have warned against potential misinterpretation or misuse.

 

As he explained, the main criterion for selecting researchers is the composite c-score, which takes into account not only citation counts but also author position, single-author works, and roles as first or last author. Rather than focusing solely on “number of publications,” this metric prioritizes “meaningful research impact.”

 

Mehrad added that the absence of a researcher’s name from the list does not necessarily indicate low quality of work; it simply means that the researcher’s composite score did not meet the threshold for inclusion.

 

In closing, he said that the 2025 edition is based on data indexed by Scopus up to August 1 and includes citation counts through the end of 2024. The total number of highly cited researchers in the list is reported as 236,313, of whom 2,772 are from Iran—up from 2,503 last year.

Shahid Beheshti University