Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran
Author
Kokabisaghi, Fatemeh; Miller, Andrew C; Bashar, Farshid R; Salesi, Mahmood; Zarchi, Ali A K; Keramatfar, Abdalsamad; Pourhoseingholi, Mohammad A; Amini, Hosein; Vahedian-Azimi, Amir
Abstract
International research collaborations improve individual,
institutional and governmental capacities to respond
to health crises and inequalities but may be greatly
affected by political environments. Iran ranks highly
in tertiary education, productivity growth, knowledge
impact and successful patent applications. In many
countries, economic hardship has correlated with
increased international research collaborations. Some
have hypothesised that financial constraint drives scholars
to seek outside collaborations for cost and risk sharing,
and to access funding, materials and patient populations
otherwise unavailable. This paper explores the history
and importance of US political sanctions on the health
of Iran’s academic sector. Although Iran’s international
research collaborations increased during periods of
increased sanctions, the Pearson correlation coefficient
between gross domestic product and international
research collaborations was not significant (r=0.183,
p=0.417). This indicates that other factors are at least in
part responsible. Additionally, we found Iran’s quantitative
(eg, publication number) and qualitative (eg, visibility
indices) publishing metrics to be discordant (two-tailed
Mann–Kendall trend; p<0.0002 for both). Reasons for this
are multifactorial, including increased indexing of Iranian
journals, willingness of lower visibility journals to handle
manuscripts with Iranian authors, widespread linkage
of career advancement to science visibility indices, and
others. During periods of increased sanctions, Iranian
scholars were increasingly denied opportunities to publish
scientific findings, attend scientific meetings, access to
essential medical and laboratory supplies and information
resources. We conclude that academic boycotts violate
researchers’ freedom and curtail progress. Free exchange
of ideas irrespective of creed is needed to optimize global
scientific progress.
Date
2019-06-17
Citation:
APA:
Kokabisaghi, Fatemeh, & Miller, Andrew C, & Bashar, Farshid R, & Salesi, Mahmood, & Zarchi, Ali A K, & Keramatfar, Abdalsamad, & Pourhoseingholi, Mohammad A, & Amini, Hosein, & Vahedian-Azimi, Amir. (June 2019).
Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran.
,
(),
-
. Retrieved from
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/8127
MLA:
Kokabisaghi, Fatemeh, and Miller, Andrew C, and Bashar, Farshid R, and Salesi, Mahmood, and Zarchi, Ali A K, and Keramatfar, Abdalsamad, and Pourhoseingholi, Mohammad A, and Amini, Hosein, and Vahedian-Azimi, Amir.
"Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran". .
. (),
June 2019.
September 28, 2023.
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/8127.
Chicago:
Kokabisaghi, Fatemeh and Miller, Andrew C and Bashar, Farshid R and Salesi, Mahmood and Zarchi, Ali A K and Keramatfar, Abdalsamad and Pourhoseingholi, Mohammad A and Amini, Hosein and Vahedian-Azimi, Amir,
"Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran," , no.
(June 2019),
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/8127 (accessed
September 28, 2023).
AMA:
Kokabisaghi, Fatemeh, Miller, Andrew C, Bashar, Farshid R, Salesi, Mahmood, Zarchi, Ali A K, Keramatfar, Abdalsamad, Pourhoseingholi, Mohammad A, Amini, Hosein, Vahedian-Azimi, Amir.
Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran. .
June 2019;
():
.
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/8127. Accessed
September 28, 2023.
Collections