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Applying cloud computing (CC) in education is a great opportunity to globalize knowledge with the minimum costs and maximum accessibility. This study aims to understand and predict teacher intention to use cloud commuting as infrastructure in Smart education.

This was a cross-sectional study in which faculty members’ perception concerning CC services adoption in education were assessed based on the extended model of theory of planned behavior, by researcher-developed questionnaire (a = 0.9). Collected data were analyzed by regression analysis and the final model was tested by structural equation modeling.

Attitude towards the behavior, perceived behavior control and privacy; had direct and significant associations with faculty members’ intention to use CC. However, subjective norms (p = 0.311) and security (p = 0.505 ) were not significant predictors of intention to use CC.

The results of this study elucidate the critical factors associated with teacher’s behavioral intentions toward CC services and also serve as a valuable reference for education sector to plan for the better use of these services. The presented model can be considered as best practice framework for adapting cloud commuting as infrastructure in education. Applying CC services in education is great opportunity and should be subsequently the major concern of educational organizations. This study clearly identified significant and non-significant factors that should be considered when successful implementation on could computing services is in progress.

Flipped classroom (FC) is a potential approach that encourages active learning and enhances student performance while reducing the failure rate in education. This study was carried out to present the conceptual model of FC adoption by students in higher education.

This was a cross-sectional study in which 110 medical students from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran, were selected by convenience sampling methods as the sample population. An extended technology acceptance model (TAM) was applied to determine the students’ intention concerning the FC adoption. A research-based questionnaire, the validity and reliability of which have been approved, was used as the data collection instrument. The data was analyzed by SPSS v16, IBM. Correlation and regression methods have been used in the empirical study. Finally, the authorized model was presented.

The data show that subjective norms and perceived enjoyment have a direct and significant effect on perceived usefulness of the FC approach (ß = 0.32, P-value < 0.05), (ß = 0.7, P-value < 0.01). Also, we found that perceived usefulness (ß = 0.67, P-value < 0.01), perceived ease of use (ß = 0.51, P-value < 0.01) and self-efficacy (ß = 0.43, P-value < 0.01) have a direct and significant effect on FC adoption.

This study extended TAM and presented a validity model to elucidate student’s behavior concerning FC acceptance. Also, in this study, five determinant factors that affect successful adoption of FC have been clearly identified. The authors found that the new approach of learning such as FC should be an effective, attractive and enjoyable method.

The findings of this study should be considered when successful implementation of FC is in progress.

This purpose of this study is to examine research performance of Iraqi-Kurdistan universities, using the number of papers appearing in journals and proceedings, and the number of citations received by those papers as covered by Scopus, 1970-2012. This study also identifies subject coverage (domain/field) of publications and determines the preference of research communication channel within the research community?

A total of 459 papers published by Iraqi-Kurdistan universities and indexed by Scopus during the given time period were considered. The source items (i.e. records of publications by the faculty members of the Iraqi-Kurdistan universities) were all the documents published in international journals and proceedings indexed by Scopus (an Elsevier bibliographic database) from the time period ranging from 1970 to 2012. All papers having an authorship or a co-authorship associated with the Iraqi-Kurdistan universities were included and the number of citations received by them was counted for the period.

The study found that major journals used by Iraqi-Kurdistan universities were Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, Journal of Chinese Clinical Medicine, Asian Journal of Chemistry, Hemoglobin and Journal of Applied Sciences Research. Additionally, three older institutions (Salahaddin University-Hawler, University of Sulaimani and University of Duhok) were the most productive universities. Moreover, the study revealed that 237 of 459 (52 per cent) of publications have international collaborations. It is further evident that among the 459 publications, 211 (40 per cent) have been cited 1,020 times; while 248 (60 per cent) of the papers have not been cited even once, so about 60 per cent of the papers were invisible to world science during the study period. This study also noted that the 25 highly cited papers were cited 484 times, representing 47 per cent of all the citations (484 of 1,020). This indicated a concentration effect, whereby a relatively small number of papers earn most of the citations and research impact generated by the faculty members of Iraqi-Kurdistan universities.

This is the first scientometric research to analyse Iraqi-Kurdistan universities’ scientific productivity.