International visibility of Iranian ISI journals

Purpose – This research paper aims to investigate the internationalization and visibility of Iranian scientific journals covered by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) between 2000 and 2006. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 1,298 articles published in seven Iranian ISI journals and a random sample of 1,298 articles written by Iranians and published in non‐Iranian ISI journals between 2000 and 2006 were selected. Impact factor (IF), total citation (TC), citation rates, self‐citation, foreign citation, international citation (IC), international authorship, and subject distribution were analyzes for the collections. Findings – Results indicated that: the visibility rate of Iranian journals is low compared to their international counterparts; the international visibility of Iranian journals differs among disciplines; the increasing citation rate is less than the increase in publication rate; and the majority of authors who published in these journals were Iranian. Originality/value – Mere inclusion of scientific journals in the ISI does not necessarily lead to an increase in international visibility. The study highlights the need for more studies on the techniques to increase the visibility of scientific journals of the developing countries.