Explaining the achievement of scientific authority in Birjand University of Medical Sciences

Background: Advancement in science and technology is one of the axioms of the general policies stated by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Along with the Development and Innovation Program in Medical Education, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, as one of the country’s higher education institutes in healthcare, has identified its peculiar potentials for the position of scientific authority in the 9th macro-region. Methods: This descriptive study was based on the scientific hegemony model to collect data. The scientific activity of the faculty members was determined based on the number of published articles, citations, and the faculties’ H-index. Subsequently, the faculty members of Birjand University of Medical Sciences with an H-index of 10 or higher in their respective specialty were compared with their counterparts on both national and macro-regional scales in terms of the H-index. The source of data extraction was the Ministry of Health scientometrics system available on the website isid.research.ac.ir. Results: At the macro regional level, Birjand University of Medical Sciences has attained the highest H-index in the five specialties of clinical toxicology, infectious diseases, molecular medicine, epidemiology, and parasitology. On the national scale, the university is ranked among the 8 to 9-percent top universities in the fields of clinical toxicology and poisoning, infectious diseases, and molecular medicine. Conclusion: In Birjand University of Medical Sciences, there is potential to assume scientific authority in clinical toxicology and poisoning, infectious diseases, and molecular medicine at the person level. The potential avails at the institutional level in case of support from officials. Given less than ten years of tenure of the faculties and the currently desirable recruitment policies, the university is capable of turning into a scientific pole in one or more of these specialties in case that the scientific staff are empowered further and organized into teams.