Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran
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...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2019-10-01
|
| Series: | BMJ Global Health |
| Online Access: | https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/5/e001692.full |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1850256468495826944 |
|---|---|
| author | Fatemeh Kokabisaghi Andrew C Miller Farshid R Bashar Mahmood Salesi Ali A K Zarchi Abdalsamad Keramatfar Mohammad A Pourhoseingholi Hosein Amini Amir Vahedian-Azimi |
| author_facet | Fatemeh Kokabisaghi Andrew C Miller Farshid R Bashar Mahmood Salesi Ali A K Zarchi Abdalsamad Keramatfar Mohammad A Pourhoseingholi Hosein Amini Amir Vahedian-Azimi |
| author_sort | Fatemeh Kokabisaghi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c695dc845c5e4e79acffbd1ab4e35548 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2059-7908 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2019-10-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Global Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-c695dc845c5e4e79acffbd1ab4e355482025-08-20T01:56:38ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Global Health2059-79082019-10-014510.1136/bmjgh-2019-001692Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in IranFatemeh Kokabisaghi0Andrew C Miller1Farshid R Bashar2Mahmood Salesi3Ali A K Zarchi4Abdalsamad Keramatfar5Mohammad A Pourhoseingholi6Hosein Amini7Amir Vahedian-Azimi81 Healthcare and Law Department, School of Health Policy and Management, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands2 Department of Emergency Medicine, East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine, Greenville, North Carolina, USA3 Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran4 Chemical Injuries Research Center, Systems Biology and Poisonings Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran5 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran6 Scientific Information Database, Tehran, Iran7 Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases Research Center, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran8 Department of Epidemiology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran9 Trauma Research Center, Nursing Faculty, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranInternational 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.https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/5/e001692.full |
| spellingShingle | Fatemeh Kokabisaghi Andrew C Miller Farshid R Bashar Mahmood Salesi Ali A K Zarchi Abdalsamad Keramatfar Mohammad A Pourhoseingholi Hosein Amini Amir Vahedian-Azimi Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran BMJ Global Health |
| title | Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran |
| title_full | Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran |
| title_fullStr | Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran |
| title_short | Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran |
| title_sort | impact of united states political sanctions on international collaborations and research in iran |
| url | https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/5/e001692.full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT fatemehkokabisaghi impactofunitedstatespoliticalsanctionsoninternationalcollaborationsandresearchiniran AT andrewcmiller impactofunitedstatespoliticalsanctionsoninternationalcollaborationsandresearchiniran AT farshidrbashar impactofunitedstatespoliticalsanctionsoninternationalcollaborationsandresearchiniran AT mahmoodsalesi impactofunitedstatespoliticalsanctionsoninternationalcollaborationsandresearchiniran AT aliakzarchi impactofunitedstatespoliticalsanctionsoninternationalcollaborationsandresearchiniran AT abdalsamadkeramatfar impactofunitedstatespoliticalsanctionsoninternationalcollaborationsandresearchiniran AT mohammadapourhoseingholi impactofunitedstatespoliticalsanctionsoninternationalcollaborationsandresearchiniran AT hoseinamini impactofunitedstatespoliticalsanctionsoninternationalcollaborationsandresearchiniran AT amirvahedianazimi impactofunitedstatespoliticalsanctionsoninternationalcollaborationsandresearchiniran |