title: PubMed-Indexed Dental Publications from Iran: A Scientometric Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Scientometric methods and the resulting citations have been applied to investigate the scientific performance of a nation. The present study was designed to collect the statistical information of dental articles by Iranian authors published in PubMed.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched the PubMed database for dental articles of Iranian authors until June 31, 2015. All abstracts were manually reviewed in order to exclude false retrievals. The number of articles per dental subspecialties, distribution of research designs, Scopus/Google Scholar citation of each article, number of authors and affiliation of the first/corresponding author were extracted and transferred to Microsoft Excel. The data were further analyzed to illustrate the related scientometric indicators.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 3,835 articles were retrieved according to the selection criteria. The number of PubMed-indexed publications between 2008 and 2015 showed a seven-fold increase. The majority of articles were written by four authors (24.56%). Systematic reviews and clinical trials constituted 9.20% of all publications. The number and percentage of articles with ≥4 citations from Google Scholar (n=2024; 52.78%) were higher than those from Scopus (n=1015; 26.47%). According to affiliated departments of the first authors, the top three dental subspecialties with the highest number of publications belonged to endodontics (19.82%), orthodontics (11.13%) and oral and maxillofacial surgery (10.33%). Moreover, the majority of articles originated from Shahid Beheshti- (14.47%), Tehran- (13.72%) and Mashhad- (12.28%) University of Medical Sciences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Analysis of PubMed-indexed dental publications originating from Iran revealed a growing trend in the recent years.
authors.affiliation: Professor, Iranian Center for Endodontic Research, Research Institute of Dental Sciences, Dental School, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Saeed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Asgary
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate Student of Pediatric Dentistry, Student Research Committee, Faculty of Dentistry, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; Researcher, Dental Research Center, Research Institute of Dental Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Sedigheh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sabbagh
authors.affiliation: Professor of Pediatric Dentistry, Dental Material Research Center, School of Dentistry, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza Sarraf
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Shirazi
authors.affiliation: Researcher, Dental Research Center, Research Institute of Dental Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ahmadyar
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor of Endodontics, Endodontology Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Arash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shahravan
authors.affiliation: Professor, Dental Research Center, Dentistry Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Department of Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Sadegh Ahmad
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Akhoundi
keywords: Bibliometrics; Iran; Publications