The effect of funding on academic research impact: a case study of Iranian publications

Abstract

Purpose

This paper's aim is to examine the citation impact of Iranian funded research publications and compare it with research which received no funding.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a bibliometric method, the study investigated 80,300 Iranian publications published from 2000 to 2009 in SCI‐EXPANDED to discover the percentage of funded publications and to determine the citation impact of these publications in comparison with unfunded ones.

Findings

The results of the study showed that around 12.5 per cent of Iranian publications were funded and the number of funded publications has increased dramatically over the last four years. The citation impact of funded publications was higher in almost all of the subject fields. The highest number of funded publications belonged to the universities subordinate to The Ministry of Science, Research and Technology.

Originality/value

The impact and quality of research is influenced by different factors, for instance receiving funding and research facilities. As this issue has not been previously examined in Iran, the present study determines whether funding can influence the impact of Iranian research.

Citation

Jowkar, A., Didegah, F. and Gazni, A. (2011), "The effect of funding on academic research impact: a case study of Iranian publications", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 63 No. 6, pp. 593-602. https://doi.org/10.1108/00012531111187243