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

Behind Mashhad University of Medical Sciences's research output sits a defining relationship: 1,946 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: 764 collaborating institutions across 70 countries, producing 16,627 joint works over the window, with international co-authors on 24% of output.

The collaborative work travels: its field-weighted citation impact stands at 1.91, 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.