Evaluation of Iranian Scientists Productions in Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology based on ISI through 2000 to 2008

In most countries, internationally indexed scientific publications provide the possibility for the scientometric experts to study their scientific progress. In Iran, the number of scientific productions indexed in ISI was 323 in 1993 and rose to 14832 in 2008 showing about 46 manifolds. The main aim of this research is to illustrate the dynamic structure of scientific productions of Iranian biotechnologists and applied microbiologists in WOS database during 2000–2008. The data was gathered through searching WOS database of ISI. The field of search was country (CU=IRAN). 681 scientific products were reported to be indexed in ISI. Iranians' international collaboration has been mainly with Canadian, Swedish and Australian coauthors. Compared to other Iranian universities, University of Tehran, Tarbiat Modares University and Tehran University of Medical Sciences have contributed mostly to ISI. Iranian biotechnologists’ and microbiologists’ intercontinental collaboration is generally in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Engineering and chemical and Biochemical research. There has been an increase in the fundamental research activities in Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology research projects which have triggered motivation for higher contribution to ISI

A bibliometric trend analysis of stem cells and regenerative medicine research output in Iran: comparison with the global research output

This report is a bibliometric analysis of the growth rates of publications in the fields of stem cells and tissue engineering and regenerative medicine in Iran and compares these rates with the rates in other regions of the world. PubMed database was used for extraction of relevant publications using MeSH terms. The data were extracted from 2001-2011 and the address fields of the publications were checked manually in order to allocate the publications to a relevant geographical region. Linear regression was used for fitting a linear model to the publications of a particular region and the slope of the model was used as an indicator of publication growth rate. Statistical comparison of the slopes of different regions showed that Iran enjoys a moderate growth rate in regards to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine publications (including stem cells-related papers) and a low growth rate in regards to general stem cells papers. Iran is a regionally dominant country in the field of tissue engineering but, not in the field of stem cells. Analysis of the annual growth rate showed a steady pattern of growth of tissue engineering papers and a random pattern of growth for general stem cells papers. This is an indication of instability in the general stem cell research and stability in the field of tissue engineering. Due to equal research funding opportunities, this observation is explained by the natural selection of the latter field by Iranian biomedical scientists. This natural selection should be supported and followed by policy makers in order to take advantage of current research interests and capabilities. It is recommended to view and manage stem cells research as a part of regenerative medicine not vice versa

Hurdles of publication: to authors to overcome

Summary The experience of work in BioImpacts and direct involvement in whole the process of publication inspired us to tackle here the dimensions which we recognize as problematic areas in publication, namely, scientific setbacks, language and technical issues. Authors besides readers as competent future authors are urged not to neglect the significance of well-writing either through considering the language-associated issues or attending the technical matters besides enriching the scientific content. The article offers a scope for the authors to manifest themselves, hence we suggest how to best appear in this play

A road to ethics: a new experience of retraction

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Social Networking in Health System for Knowledge Translation

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ISI's Impact Factor Challenges

Background and Aim: One of the main criteria in scientometric evaluation of the medical sciences universities is the number of published articles in the journals that have high Impact Factor (IF). The IF is an indicator to evaluate the journals. Many shortcomings of IF were revealed. This review aims to bring out the challenges of IF and the related solutions of them.Materials and Methods: Required literatures for this review were collected by searching in related databases such as Web of Science (WOS), Scopus, Google Scholar, and also Google search engine as well as SIGMetrics Discussion Group. Determined search strategy limits search to exact phrase and synonyms. Results selected considering relevancy. The review covers the literatures published between 1972- 2007.Results: We found at least 18 shortcomings of IF which reduce the efficacy of this indicator. In addition, they stated some solutions versus the shortcomings; however, there is no suggested resolution for some of the shortcomings.Conclusions: Considering the shortcoming of IF, however it could not be ignored because of its accessibility and ease of use. Solely, IF cannot solve the researchers' problem of qualified journal selection. Such solution needs awareness about IF challenges. Readers' judgments and journal clubs are valuable qualitative ways, which can help IF in the evaluation of journals