title: Knowledge production status of Iranian researchers in the gastric cancer area: based on the medline database.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Scientometrics is a useful method for management of financial and human resources and has been applied many times in medical sciences during recent years. The aim of this study was to investigate the status of science production by Iranian scientists in the gastric cancer field based on the Medline database.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this descriptive-cross sectional study Iranian science production concerning gastric cancer during 2000-2011 was investigated based on Medline. After two stages of searching, 121 articles were found, then we reviewed publication date, authors names, journal title, impact factor (IF), and cooperation coefficient between researchers. SPSS.19 was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a significant increase in published articles about gastric cancer by Iranian researchers in Medline database during 2006-2011. Mean cooperation coefficient between researchers was 6.14±3.29 person per article. Articles of this field were published in 19 countries and 56 journals. Those basex in Thailand, England, and America had the most published Iranian articles. Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Mohammadreza Zali had the most outstanding role in publishing scientific articles.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to results of this study, improving cooperation of researchers in conducting research and scientometric studies about other fields may have an important role in increasing both quality and quantity of published studies.
authors.affiliation: Liver and Gastrointestinal Disease Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran E-mail : saberazami@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Morteza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghojazadeh
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naghavi-Behzad
authors.forename: Raheleh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nasrolah-Zadeh
authors.forename: Parvaneh
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bayat-Khajeh
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Piri
authors.forename: Keyvan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mirnia
authors.forename: Saber
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Azami-Aghdash
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D019359:Knowledge; D016239:MEDLINE; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012108:Research Personnel; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms