--- title: "Research institutions in Iran, ranked" description: "Universities, labs, companies and other institutions in Iran whose researchers wrote two or more of the papers in our library, ranked by the citations of…" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/orgs/country/ir/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/orgs/country/ir/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [institutions](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/orgs/) / Iran # Research institutions in Iran Universities, labs, companies and other institutions in Iran whose researchers wrote two or more of the papers in our library, ranked by the citations of their works here. 4 institutions · ranked by the citations of their works here · [all kinds](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/orgs/) ## About ### Profile [Iran](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/orgs/country/ir/) appears in this library as a country grouping of research institutions. The grouping collects universities, laboratories, companies and other bodies located in Iran, on the condition that people working there wrote at least two of the papers held on this site. It is a narrow window. It does not survey Iranian science as a whole. It shows the part of that science that has reached this collection and can be traced to particular institutions. Through that window the picture is simple. Every institution in the grouping is a university, and every one of them is in Tehran. No laboratories, companies, hospitals or government agencies in Iran currently meet the threshold, and neither does any institution outside the capital. On this site, then, Iranian research is a story of a few Tehran universities, each with a small body of work and very different levels of attention from other researchers. The grouping sits inside the library's wider directory of [institutions of all kinds](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/orgs/). From there readers can compare the Iranian entries with institutions in other countries, or move from the country view to the page of each university. ### The institutions The country page lists its universities in a fixed order. It says the ranking reflects the cited work that scientists did at each institution. The four entries follow in that order. The [University of Tehran](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/university-of-tehran/) comes first. It is a university in Tehran and is tied with one other institution for the broadest presence here, since its researchers contributed to more of the papers in the collection than those at most of the other Iranian entries. Those papers have drawn a moderate body of citations. That combination of breadth and steady citation places it at the head of the list. The [Sharif University of Technology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/sharif-university-of-technology/), also in Tehran, is listed second. Its body of work here is smaller than that of the University of Tehran, yet the citations attached to it are far higher than for any other Iranian institution in the grouping. By citations alone it stands well apart from the rest. Readers who want the most cited Iranian work in the library should begin with this university's page. The [Iran University of Science and Technology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/iran-university-of-science-and-technology/) is third. Its body of work is the same size as Sharif's, but it has been cited much less, though more than the final entry. It is again a Tehran university. The [Shahid Beheshti University](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/shahid-beheshti-university/) closes the list. Like the University of Tehran, it has one of the larger bodies of work among the Iranian institutions here, but those papers have so far drawn only a small number of citations. It too is located in Tehran. ### How citation and output differ Set side by side, the four entries show that the amount of work an institution has on this site and the attention that work receives are two separate things. The two universities with the broadest presence, the University of Tehran and Shahid Beheshti University, sit at opposite ends of the citation range. The University of Tehran's papers have been cited steadily, while Shahid Beheshti's have so far gone largely uncited. The two universities with smaller bodies of work also diverge sharply. Sharif's papers are the most cited of any Iranian institution here, while those of the Iran University of Science and Technology have drawn a modest response. This spread is a reminder of how uneven citation can be. With so few papers per institution, one widely used paper can lift an institution's total far above its neighbours, and the absence of such a paper can leave an equally active institution with little attention. The Sharif figures point to at least one paper, or a small cluster, that other researchers have relied on heavily. The Shahid Beheshti figures may simply mean that its papers are newer or cover narrower questions. The country page alone cannot say which explanation applies. The ordering adds a further detail. The list puts the University of Tehran above Sharif, even though Sharif's raw citation total is the larger. The ranking is therefore not a plain sort by total citations. It describes itself as based on the cited work done at each institution, which suggests that the breadth of contributions or the way credit is shared among co-authors and affiliations also plays a part. Readers comparing the institutions should look at both measures shown on the page and not rely on the order alone. ### Geography All four universities share one city, so on this site Iranian research is concentrated in Tehran. That concentration should be read with care. It describes which institutions have passed the two-paper threshold in this library, not where research happens across the country. Universities and institutes in other Iranian cities may well have authors on this site who fall below the threshold, or whose work the collection has not yet added. As the library grows, the regional picture could change. Within Tehran, the grouping contains two kinds of university. Two of the institutions, Sharif and the Iran University of Science and Technology, have names that point to technology and engineering. The University of Tehran and Shahid Beheshti University have broader names. The country page gives no subject breakdown, so it would go beyond the evidence to assign fields to any of them. Readers interested in the subjects studied at each institution should consult the separate university pages, which set out the works, people and topics linked to each one. ### What the country view does not show The country page is a directory, not a full portrait. It names no individual scientists, so it cannot say who the leading researchers in Iran are, even within this collection. It lists no specific papers, so the landmark works behind the high Sharif citations, for example, have to be found on that university's own page. It gives no topics or fields, no list of partner institutions or countries, and no years. For that reason the usual questions about strengths, people, key works, partnerships and changes over time cannot be answered from the country view alone. Each of those questions has a home elsewhere in the library. The university pages for Tehran, Sharif, the Iran University of Science and Technology and Shahid Beheshti are the places to find the authors who worked at each one, the papers they wrote, the topics those papers cover and the institutions they wrote with. Researchers building a picture of collaboration involving Iran would do best to go through those pages one by one and note where the same co-authors or partner institutions recur. ### Reading the list For students and journalists, the most useful way to treat the Iranian grouping is as a starting point. It shows which Iranian institutions are present in this library with more than a single paper, gives a rough sense of how much their work has been used, and offers a route to the detail held on each institution's page. Three points stand out. Every institution here is a Tehran university. Sharif University of Technology's work has drawn by far the most citations. The University of Tehran heads the ranked order with a broader body of steadily cited work. What the list cannot do is stand in for a measure of Iranian research nationally. It reflects one collection, a threshold of two papers per institution, and citations that keep changing as new work is added and old work is cited again. The order of the universities, the totals beside them, and even which institutions appear may all shift as the library expands. Any claim about Iran's place in a field, or about one Iranian university's standing against another outside this collection, needs evidence beyond what is gathered here. Read with those limits in mind, the grouping gives a clear if partial view: a small set of universities in the capital, each contributing a handful of papers to the library, with the attention those papers receive spread very unevenly between them. **[Sharif University of Technology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/sharif-university-of-technology/)**University · [Tehran](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/agglomerations/tehran/), Iran*2 works · 524 citations* **[University of Tehran](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/university-of-tehran/)**University · [Tehran](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/agglomerations/tehran/), Iran*3 works · 150 citations* **[Iran University of Science and Technology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/iran-university-of-science-and-technology/)**University · [Tehran](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/agglomerations/tehran/), Iran*2 works · 57 citations* **[Shahid Beheshti University](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/shahid-beheshti-university/)**University · [Tehran](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/agglomerations/tehran/), Iran*3 works · 5 citations*