Estimation the amount of currency outflow arising from publishing articles in foreign journals and providing strategies for resistance economy

The macro-policies of resistance economy emphasize reducing foreign dependencies and preventing unnecessary currency outflows. The purpose of this study was to calculate the amount of currency outflow resulting from the publication of articles in foreign journals and provide the necessary strategies in the field of research.

The present study was a mixed (quantitative-qualitative) study. In the first step, all articles published in foreign journals indexed in Scopus with the affiliation of selected universities during 2008, 2013 and 2018 were selected by census method, and then the cost of publishing was calculated. In the second step, through holding a focus group discussion (FGD) with the participation of 15 research experts, the strategies for reducing currency outflow in medical science research were examined. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16 and MAXQDA 2018.

In 2013 and 2018, the average outflow of currency was 328 and 290$ per article for university A as well as 111 and 258$ per article for university B, respectively. In 2013 and 2018, there was no statistically significant difference between universities in terms of currency outflow due to the publication of articles (P> 0.05). Strategies for reducing currency outflow and developing resistance economy in the area of article publication were identified in 3 main areas (including scientometrics, economic evaluation of publication and policy making of scientific publications) with 9 sub-areas.

Publication of articles in scientific journals published outside of Iran can lead to currency outflow and economic effects. Policy-making institutions in Iran can help universities by developing national citation databases, building a strong communication network between domestic journals and quantitative and qualitative development of national journals to publish articles at reputable national journals to prevent currency outflow.