A bibliometric overview of 30 years of medical sciences productivity in iran.
OBJECTIVE
The number of medical universities and their faculty members has significantly increased in Iran during the last 30 years. This development has led to the training of a large number of healthcare professionals. But, its effect on medical sciences productivity has not yet been fully analyzed. Here, we use a bibliometric analysis to assess the current status of Iranian medical sciences production in different subject areas.


METHODS
The bibliographic data of Iranian medical subjects during the years 1978 - 2008 were collected from the Science Citation Index Expanded database and analyzed according to publication number, different medical subject areas, citations and the annual Iranian mid-year population.


RESULTS
It was shown that Iranian scientists have established good collaboration with developed countries. The numbers of medical publications, even after normalization to the population size, and citations of these publications have significantly increased in recent years. It has also been shown that pharmacologic research constitutes the major theme in the Iranian medical research system and thus enjoys the highest rate of growth.


CONCLUSIONS
Strengthening of the non-pharmacologic research infra-structure is advised for both basic and clinical departments, keeping in mind the existing successful research model of pharmacology in Iran.
Mohammadhassanzadeh
Hafez
H
Department of Medical Librarianship and Information Sciences, Faculty of Management and Medical Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Samadikuchaksaraei
Ali
A
Shokraneh
Farhad
F
Valinejad
Ali
A
Abolghasem-Gorji
Hassan
H
Yue
Chen
C
D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000639:trends*; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D011642:Publications / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*