The Scientific Output of Iran: Quantity, Quality, and Corruption

Iran is showing an exceptional increase in the annual number of publications at a rate that leaves other fast-developing countries like China, South Korea, India, and Turkey in the dust. This raises the question as to how this surge in publications has happened; whether there has been a trade-off for quality; and what role government policies have played. Answers to these questions have implications beyond the specific case of a single country, as Iran represents an extreme example of the publish-or-perish paradigm that is currently pervasive around the globe.
In order to better understand the trends in Iran’s scientific output, we compiled and analyzed large datasets of approximately 450,000 papers (publication year, journal, citations, and authors affiliations), journals information, hyper-prolific authors, retracted papers, publications in predatory journals, and demographic and economic data. We also performed a first-hand investigation of agencies that offer writing (fabricated) papers on demand.