Diversity and Representation in the Editorial Teams of Iranian Medical Science Journals

Editorial boards play a central role in shaping the direction, quality, and visibility of scholarly journals. Although Iranian medical science journals are increasingly included in international indexing databases, empirical evidence on the composition, diversity, and internationalization of their editorial teams remains limited. This cross-sectional study examined editorial team composition, gender representation, and internationalization across 403 active Iranian medical science journals listed in the Iranian Research Information System (IRIS) as of July 2025. Editorial team information was manually collected from each journal’s website. Across the journals, 11,451 editorial positions were identified. Editorial teams ranged from 8 to 110 positions, with a mean of 28.5 and a median of 25. Most editorial positions were held by scholars based in Iran (71.7%), while 10.2% were held by Iranian scholars affiliated with institutions outside Iran, and 18.1% were held by non-Iranian scholars affiliated with institutions outside Iran. Women held 24.6% of editorial positions for which gender could be identified. English-language journals and journals indexed in Web of Science, Scopus, or PubMed had significantly larger editorial teams and higher internationalization rates than Persian-language journals and journals indexed in other databases (p < .001). The findings indicate that Iranian medical science journals are predominantly domestic in their institutional affiliation patterns and male-dominated in their gender composition. Greater inclusion of women and internationally affiliated scholars may broaden editorial representation and international engagement and contribute to the global visibility of Iranian journals.