Inside Ferdowsi University of Mashhad's largest research partnership: Islamic Azad University, Tehran

Behind Ferdowsi University of Mashhad's research output sits a defining relationship: 1,144 co-authored works with Islamic Azad University, Tehran (Iran) in the five years to 2025, the university's single largest collaboration.

It anchors an unusually connected research base: 817 collaborating institutions across 68 countries, producing 13,850 joint works over the window, with international co-authors on 25% of output.

The collaborative work travels: its field-weighted citation impact stands at 1.85, where the world average is 1.0.

The Research Collaboration Index, the first global account of how universities actually collaborate, publishes its first full edition on Tuesday 15 September at 09:00 UK.

Every figure derives from the open global research record and is checkable at source.