title: Iranians' contribution to world literature on neuroscience.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study is to analyse Iranian scientific publications in the neuroscience subfields by librarians and neuroscientists, using Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) via Web of Science data over the period, 2002-2008.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were retrieved from the SCIE. Data were collected from the 'subject area' of the database and classified by neuroscience experts into 14 subfields. To identify the citation patterns, we applied the 'impact factor' and the 'number of publication'. Data were also analysed using HISTCITE, Excel 2007 and SPSS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seven hundred and thirty-four papers have been published by Iranian between 2002 and 2008. Findings showed a growing trend of neuroscience papers in the last 3 years with most papers (264) classified in the neuropharmacology subfield. There were fewer papers in neurohistory, psychopharmacology and artificial intelligence. International contributions of authors were mostly in the neurology subfield, and 'Collaboration Coefficient' for the neuroscience subfields in Iran was 0.686 which is acceptable. Most international collaboration between Iranians and developed countries was from USA. Eighty-seven percent of the published papers were in journals with the impact factor between 0 and 4; 25% of papers were published by the researchers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Progress of neuroscience in Iran is mostly seen in the neuropharmacology and the neurology subfields. Other subfields should also be considered as a research priority by health policymakers. As this study was carried out by the collaboration of librarians and neuroscientists, it has been proved valuable for both librarians and policymakers. This study may be encouraging for librarians from other developing countries.
authors.affiliation: Functional Neurosurgery Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farzad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ashrafi
authors.forename: Hafez
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mohammadhassanzadeh
authors.forename: Farhad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Shokraneh
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Valinejadi
authors.forename: Karim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Johari
authors.forename: Nazanin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Saemi
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zali
authors.forename: Niloofar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mohaghegh
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ashayeri
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship; D015706:Bibliometrics; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D009480:Neuropharmacology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014495:Universities