Hajar Sotudeh; Maryam Yaghtin
Abstract
Aim: The present study aims to compare Iran's scientific productivity in different disciplines during 1991-2011 based on their publication per capita. Method: Using a scientometric method, data were obtained from the Thompson-Reuters citation websites using the SCI. The researchers’ subject matters ...
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Aim: The present study aims to compare Iran's scientific productivity in different disciplines during 1991-2011 based on their publication per capita. Method: Using a scientometric method, data were obtained from the Thompson-Reuters citation websites using the SCI. The researchers’ subject matters were classified in two different ways: (1) based on the journals’ subject categories and (2) based on the researcher’s educational or research department as reflected in his/her affiliation. Findings: The findings of this study revealed that the overall publication per capita for Iranian researchers was 51.7 in a 21-year period. The chemistry and agricultural sciences subject categories had the highest and lowest publication per capita respectively. The highest and lowest rate of publication per capita also belonged to the biophysics and the pathobiology departments respectively. Test results showed a significant difference among various subject categories and departments in terms of publication rate per capita. This difference was observed among the biology and biochemistry, chemistry, engineering, material science and several other disciplines. Such a difference was also observed between the chemistry department and some of the other departments. Conclusion: Results indicated that paying attention to the standard of the absolute number of scientific papers had failed to provide a comprehensive picture of the reality of research, and that paying attention to other standards such as publications per capita in which the number of researchers is taken into account in addition to the number of papers can provide a more accurate and comprehensive picture of scientific productivity.
