| Background: Scientometric studies are one of the most important and useful tools to assess the research
performance and knowledge impact of researchers. The aim of this study was to map out the scientific
performance of the Iranian medical academics with respect to a detailed range of scientometric indicators.
Methods: Using scientometric approach, individual and scientific performance data of medical academic staff were
extracted from the Iranian Scientometric Information Database (ISID). Total number of publications, total number of
citations, citation per paper, h-index, international collaboration, self-citation, SJR decile, i10-Index, Quartile
distribution were the studied scientometric variables. Out of the registered 19,023 academic staff, 746 were
included in the study through simple random sampling method using random sample extraction function in
STATA. Data were analyzed using STATA 14 statistical software package.
Results: Most of the included academicians were men (60%). A total of 13,682 articles were published by them
until 2018, being cited 114,928 times with a mean of 5.77 citation per paper. H-index median was three and about
90% of the staff had an H-index below 10. Number of published papers, cite per paper and H-index metrics were
significantly different with respect to gender, academic position/degree, and general field of study (p < 0.05). About
2.5% of published articles were contributed through international collaboration. The scientometric performance of
academic staff was highly diverse with respect to the employing institution and its national classification group
(type 1, 2, 3).
Conclusions: Nevertheless to the great scientific production of medical academics, individual and institutional
characteristics were identified as effective variables in academics research performance and should be considered in
their assessment. Academicians affiliated with type 2 and 3 universities (based on national ranking of medical
universities) had weaker research performance compared to those affiliated with type 1 universities. However, low
rate of international research collaborations was a common challenge in medical universities. |