Scientific output of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences according to scientometric indicators till the end of 2011

One of the most important indicators in scientific output in the world is the number of articles indexed in international and reliable indices. Many scientific institutions perform statistical analysis on countries, institutions and individuals. An Institution of Scientific Information (ISI) indexes the scientific information of most of international scientific journals. Using information on Web of Science we can evaluate scientific output of countries, universities and individuals and compare them with one another. The aim of this study was to assess the status of scientific output of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences according to scientometric indicators until the end of 2011and compare it with those of other universities within the same rank, in Iran. By use of basic search in Web of Science and choosing SCIـEXPANDED index from 1993 to 2011 different affiliated addresses indexed in WOS for Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences combined by using OR operator, then data were collected and analyzed. Total number of records indexed in WOS till the end of 2011 was 157. Maximum and minimum number of records were 111 (71. 5%) for original articles and 1 (0. 5%) for letter respectively. Maximum number of scientific output belonged to public, environmental and occupational health with 35 (22. 87%), tropical medicine with 24 (15. 68%), general and internal medicine with 21 (13. 75%), pharmacology with 12 (7. 19%), and multidisciplinary chemistry with 10 (6. 53%) records. Each of the other subjects had less than 10 records. Canada had maximum international collaboration with 7 records and Egypt, Philippines, Thailand, each with one record had minimum international collaboration. Maximum national collaboration was related to Tehran University of Medical Sciences with 29 records and Tarbeyat Modaress University with 13 records. 157 records of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences had been published in 89 journals, among them 23 journals, published maximum number of articles (54%). Only 5 journals were Iranian. Total number of citations was 300 and a median citation per article was 1/91. Average article for every academic member was 1/01. Scientific output of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences has been on the rise. Increase in citations is indicative of improvement of the quality of the articles in this university.