Research Fund Absorption and its Role in Improving the Scientific Recognition of the Most Prolific Islamic Countries in the Middle East

Iranian academia has recently experienced an increase in the number of its funded papers, and their citationadvantage over unfunded papers has been approved. However, this improvement and advantage is only meaningful whencompared to other countries. Thus, in order to determine Iran’s status among its counterparts, the present study investigated andcompared the status of research funds absorption in Iran with that of the three most prolific Islamic Middle Eastern countries,Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
This fundamental research was conducted through a citation and publication analysis approach. The statistical populationconsisted of all valid papers from prolific Islamic countries. The study sample was selected through purposive sampling and 174965academic papers indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded during 2008-2011. Data were collected on 25 of October 2012 andanalyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, frequency, and percentage) and inferential statistics (chi-square, independent t, ANOVA,Welch’s t-test, Brown–Forsythe test, and Games- Howell test) in SPSS and using Excel software.
The countries’ funded researches were significantly less, though superior in citation performance compared to unfunded papers.Saudi Arabia outperformed the other nations in terms of the portion of its funded papers. In the unfunded papers group, no statisticaldifference was observed among the nations in mean citations, except Iran which outperformed Turkey. In the funded papers group, all thenations had similar citation levels. However, the mean citation of Iran was significantly lower than the other countries.
Funded researches seem to fail to achieve a considerably high visibility and, thereby, a competitive advantage for theIranian academic production. The findings illustrate the necessity of elimination of deficiencies in Iran’s academic system,especially research fund allocation and distribution mechanisms.