RICeST in Baku/ Establishment of a Branch

By: office of public relations and international cooperation, Khazar University, Baku

RICeST branch has established in Baku on Dec. 27th 2018. RICeST president, Dr. Dehghani has commented on this establishment: “Regional Information Center for Science and Technology (RICeST), based on its charter, aims to provide the scientific information resources needed by universities and higher education institutes, as well as national and international libraries of different countries, to establish their own branch in these organizations.

He added to his words and said: “One of the aims of RICeST is to promote Persian language and literature and encourage the international community to use the available scientific information resources of RICeST. It should be noted that RICeST has the largest database of full-text Persian articles in the world, along with a collection of other full-text Persian databases, such as the conferences database, Persian electronic journals, etc., that can provide a rich collection of scientific information. "

RICeST president continued: “the demand for using Persian literature is not limited to a general level. In particular, in the world, there are different universities in which there are either Persian seats, or Persian language and literature taught in different sections Such as undergraduate, postgraduate or even doctoral degrees. We have also followed a program supporting these seats and universities with Persian courses as one of our priorities over the past year, which has also had good feedback. In fact, on the basis of the above, so far, there have been many requests from universities and scientific centers for the establishment of a branch office that we are undertaking and planning for operational purposes.”

Dehghani gave some explanations upon establishing a new RICeST branch in Azerbaijan: “Azerbaijan is one of the most favored nations of Islamic Republic of Iran, with various cultural ties between the two countries. Following the request of some universities and scientific centers of Azerbaijan to establish a branch of RICeST, as well as holding a workshop on the effectiveness of the study program of participation in Azerbaijan. The program was established at the Library of Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, Khazar University and Baku State University. Considering the time constraints due to the New Year’s holiday closeness, establishment of branches at Baku State University as well as the Library of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences put back after the holidays.

He added: “During the trip with the University of Khazar, we signed two MoU, one with RICeST and the other with ISC. ISC will cooperate with this university in promoting ranking in international ranking systems, as well as indexing the reputable publications of the Republic of Azerbaijan at ISC, holding science education courses and many more. Under the terms of this MoU, by agreeing to establish a branch, we will also cooperate in many other areas, such as collaborating in publications, scientific information exchange, faculty members’ training courses to increase scientific output, and so on.”

It should be noted that for three years, the branch of Azerbaijan will have access to the full text articles of RICeST, which will be in access for the university professors and students as well as other applicants in the Republic of Azerbaijan on an online basis.