In a conversation with Mehr reporter, Shahin Akhundzadeh, referring to the problems created for researchers during the internet shutdown, said: One of the problems was for referees and editors of international publications. When an article is sent to a researcher for review, the foreign publication does not know that our researcher in Iran has not had access to the Internet for about a month. As a result, the impression is created that this researcher is not a regular person and this issue can cause him to be removed from the international arbitration system.
Stating that the internet shutdown has harmed the country’s researchers in various degrees, he said: We expect that the system, when it decides to shut down the internet based on its considerations and discretion, will make an exception for universities and scientific departments and not do this. Just as the Chamber of Commerce provided access to the Internet for business card holders, such an opportunity should also be created for researchers.
Citing an example of researchers who had this problem, Akhundzadeh said: One of the first level researchers of the country, who is the first person in the Web of Science in health research, had a problem during this period of time. This researcher stated that he received an article for refereeing from a journal with an impact factor of 40, but he was unable to do the work due to the internet disconnection. If this person can without exaggeration work in the best universities in the world with the rank of full professor. If such a researcher stays in the country and conducts research and educates students, it is because of national pride and the system should help such a researcher.
He emphasized: As a teacher, a research manager, and a researcher, I expect that in such a situation, special attention will be paid to the country’s researchers.
The Vice President of Research and Technology of the Ministry of Health, referring to the problem created for the evaluation of publications and the indexing of international publications at the time of internet outage, said: Indexing of publications in Scopus and Web of Science requires 3 to 5 years of continuous effort, and after the introduction of the publication, it is monitored for one to two years for the indexing of the publication, so that its international standards are checked in terms of publication order, etc.
He continued: Normally, the results of these evaluations are announced in February and March. Just when our internet was having problems. In this situation, our publications were neither able to publish articles nor could they receive their refereed articles from international referees.
Akhundzadeh pointed out: Even the journals that were in the final stage of indexing had problems in this period of time, and this problem caused serious damage to the process of internationalization of research, especially in the field of scientific journals.
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