Pishine (IranDoc)

Overview

Pishine (پیشینه پژوهش) is an online research verification and prior-research registry system developed and operated by the Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IranDoc), a national institute affiliated with Iran's Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (MSRT). The platform's primary purpose is to allow students and researchers to review the prior literature and existing work on their research topics, particularly dissertations and theses, thereby reducing duplication of research effort in Iranian academic institutions.

History and Institutional Context

IranDoc was established in 1968 as the Iranian Documentation Centre, with the mission of bringing modern information services to Iranian scientists and researchers. The institute has since grown into one of Iran's primary national repositories of scientific and technical information, with over 50 years of experience managing academic databases. Pishine emerged from IranDoc's broader mandate as the national registry for academic research, responsible for the registration, organization, and dissemination of scientific and technological information produced by Iranians both domestically and abroad. By collecting full-text copies of Iranian dissertations and theses since 1976, IranDoc developed the foundation for Pishine's literature review and verification services.

Collections and Functions

Pishine enables researchers to search the Ganj database (Iran's Scientific Information Database) and related repositories to identify prior studies and dissertations relevant to their research topics. The system is particularly used to fulfill requirements associated with postgraduate research proposals. It helps users avoid redundancy by surfacing previous work on similar subjects. The broader IranDoc infrastructure includes more than one million records in Persian scientific and technical databases, which are accessed by thousands of users daily.

Access and Usage

Pishine is accessible online at pishine.irandoc.ac.ir. An English-language interface is available. Users typically register via the IranDoc system and may need institutional credentials for full access. The platform is primarily oriented toward Iranian university students and academic researchers, especially those preparing dissertations, theses, or research proposals that require prior research verification.

Parent Institution

IranDoc is a national member of both the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the Association for Information Management (ASLIB). It maintains nine research groups across three departments and three research laboratories, and employs over 100 specialists.