The Situation of Scientific Publications of Iran’s Universities of Medical Science on the Basis of Scientometrics Qualitative and Quantitative Indicators 1997-2006

Introduction: To prepare a basis for qualitative promotion of scientific publications of Iran’s universities of medical science, this survey studied quality and quantity of scientific production of these universities in a ten year period employing scientometrics qualitative and quantitative indicators.Methods: In this survey, the study population was the total number of Iranian universities of medical science that had publications in ISI Web of Science Database. Sampling, on the basis of Garfield research, was done in non parametric method. Nineteen universities of medical science with at least 25 publications, from total 42 universities of medical science in Iran, were selected. The source of data collecting was Web of Science database and the tools of data collecting were citation analysis and search system of database; data were gathered in for aspects: production, citation, citation impact, and percentage of cited documents. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics using SPSS software.Results: Ranking universities based on qualitative and quantitative criteria were different. The rate of overlap between lists of the best universities based on four indicators was 25%. Mashhad University of Medical Science was the sole university attended in lists of the best universities based on four indicators.Conclusion: Difference between ranking universities on the basis of qualitative and quantitative indicators indicates that qualitative evaluation parallel to quantitative evaluation should be considered for scientific assessing of these universities.Keywords: Universities; Evaluation; Databases; Indicators; Information Evaluation.