Scientific Collaboration between Iran and Developing Countries (D8) and Some Strategies for its Promotion

Investigation in the scientific collaboration between scientists is a popular topic in science assessment discipline, which has been welcomed in recent years. Scientists’ collaboration at international level is a broad form of scientific cooperation, which the studies in this area have emphasized its importance and benefits. The present study aimsto draw a schematic pictureon research and scientific collaborationbetween Iranian  researchers and some other researchers from seven developing countries in 2000-2012.Also this proposes some approaches for developing scientific collaboration among those countries. The findings shows that Turkey, Iran, and Malaysia are three main producers of science among developing countries in the world. Although scientific collaborationbetween Iran and other developing countries has been developed in recent years, this development isalso of low level.Just a very small percentage of Iranian researchers have cooperated with researchers of seven other countries. It seems that a planning for diagnosing and removingthe barriers of cooperation may help to improve this situation. Besides,the approach of policymakers of developing countries must be better toward Iran andthe mutual agreements and the between Iranian and their universities should be admitted as well.These activities may contribute to the improvement of the present situation of scientific cooperation between Iran and other developing countries.