True Development or Just Some Nugatory Digits? A Social-Epistemological Study of Iran’s Global Rank in Scientific Output

In the last decade Iranian academia has witnessed a glaring growth in scientific output, as can be seen in the relevant international rankings. However, there are serious doubts, among Iranian researchers themselves, as to the true meaning of Iran’s status in such rankings. To see whether such ostensibly promising status indicates true development in scientific practice in Iran, we seem to need a philosophical account on what scientific practice is. In this paper I introduce a social-epistemological account of scientific practice based on which I analyze Iran’s status in the international rankings. My analyses shows that, once science is viewed as a practice of social-epistemological nature, Iran’s status in such rankings should not be taken at face value.