Survey on Citations Used in the Dentistry Students, Theses in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences During 1998-2012

Having a proper citation in a thesis is a vital element in communications in the scientific world. The aim of the present study was to analyze the citations of dentistry students’ theses of Rafsanjan University of Medical sciences (RUMS). In this cross-sectional study all the dentistry students’ theses of RUMS during 1998 to 2012 were analyzed. For carrying out this research a checklist had been applied and for every thesis this checklist was completed by a member of the research team. Deta were analysed by X2 and Fisher Exactly test. From 311 theses under investigation 62. 4% had standard citations. The mean and standard deviation of references were 37. 55 ± 25. 27. The most mean of references was related to English articles while the least mean was related to Persian articles، Persian books and electronic references. The style of writing the references in the dentistry students’ theses was Vancouver style and from the standard point of view they were categorized as average. Conducting educational workshop is suggested in order to achieve a higher standard in citations.