title: Trends in Global Assisted Reproductive Technologies Research: a Scientometrics study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study illustrated the global contribution to assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) research in MEDLINE database from 1998 to 2014.
  
  
  METHODS
  In March 2015, the MEDLINE database was searched for research publications indexed under 'reproductive techniques, assisted' (including the following MeSH headings: in vitro fertilization [IVF]; intracytoplasmic sperm injections; cryopreservation; and ovulation induction), with the following expressions in the fields of title or abstract: intrauterine insemination; sperm donation; embryo/egg donation and surrogate mothers. The number of publications in MEDLINE database was recorded for each individual year, 1998-2014, and for each country. The following countries were arbitrarily selected for data retrieval: United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan (G7 countries), Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC countries), Egypt, Turkey, Israel and Iran.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The absolute number of publications for each country from 1998 to 2014 ranged from 75 to 16453, with a median of 2024. The top five countries were the US (16453 publications), the UK (5427 publications), Japan (4805), China (4660) and France (3795). ART (20277), cryopreservation (11623) and IVF (11209) were the most researched areas.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Global research on ARTs were geographically distributed and highly concentrated among the world's richest countries. Cryopreservation and IVF were the most productive research domains among ARTs.
authors.affiliation: Ph.D. of Library and Information Science, Assistant Professor, Physiology Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okhovati
authors.affiliation: M.Sc. of Epidemiology, Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Morteza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zare
authors.affiliation: Student of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zare
authors.affiliation: M.Sc. of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Maliheh Sadat
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Bazrafshan
authors.affiliation: M.Sc. of Medical Library and Information Science, Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Azam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bazrafshan
keywords: assisted reproductive technologies; bibliometrics; infertility
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