The Assessment of Iranian Systematic Review Articles in Biomedical Sciences Based on the Scientometrics Methods

Abstract

Introduction: Studying the growth of scientific outputs in different subject areas can be one of the foundations of scientific policymaking in that field. Systematic reviews are of the main research outputs in medical sciences, and they are finding more applications. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the growth trend of these articles in the field of biomedicine. Methods: The present study was carried out using documentary method; and in the process of systematic review of biomedical articles, the distribution of scientific products by language was assessed. The statistical society consisted of all systematic review articles by Iranian researchers in biomedical fields. 350 Persian articles were recovered and analyzed from the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) and Scientific Information Database (SID), as well as 2595 English articles from Scopus database. Results: The average growth rate of systematic reviews in biomedical sciences by Iranian researchers was increasing; so that the approximate growth rate was 0.06 (6%) and 0.21 (21%) in Persian and in English articles, respectively, indicating that the growth rate of Latin articles was three and a half times that of Persians. The most widely cited Persian language journal was the Iranian Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Infertility with 46 articles, and that of English language was the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention with 58 articles. Conclusion: Iranian systematic review articles in the field of biomedicine have grown in recent years, and English-language journals are the main outlets for publishing such articles.

Keywords

• biomedical research
• systematic review
• bibliometrics
• periodicals as topic
• iran