A Scientometric Analysis of Problem-Based Learning in Medical Education in Medline and Web of Science

Scientometrics is one of the most effective ways of investigating and quantifying research in academic databases. It can help examine the scientific output of various countries, and the authors’ and articles’ impacts on different subject areas can be determined. The main objective of this study was to analyze global scientific productions of problem-based learning (PBL) found in scientific productions indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) and PubMed databases from 2003-2013. PubMed and WoS were searched for PBL-related articles with the keywords “Problem Based Learning” AND “Medical Education”, excluding the keyword “problem solving”. The analysis was done based on scientometric indicators, like number of publications, citation count and Journals Impact Factor. Among the countries publishing research in PubMed and WoS, the USA was the most prominent producer, was identified as a leading and active contributor among others in the field of medicl education. A statistically significant relationship was found between geographical distribution of continents and PBL application in the specific field, authors’ articles and the continents of authors’ affiliations. Attention should be paid to the importance of problem-based learning in medical education, especially in developed countries, because a growing body of research suggests that it is necessary to train students who are researchers and can meet the needs of society.