Using a Scientific Map to Compare Scientific Publications on Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome in Iran, Middle East and Other Countries

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), one of the most common gynecological diseases, has been the subject of many scientific studies. Scientific map is one way to obtain useful information about a particular research field status. We aimed to compare the quantity of scientific publications on PCOS in Iran to those of the Middle East and other countries.
In this scientometric study, the samples included all medical scientific publications about PCOS, indexed in the Web of Knowledge from 2000 to 2016. Bibexcel software was used for calculating subject category co-citation, analyzing social networks and two Pajek and VOS viewer software were used for creating maps.
Iran ranked eighth among the top ten leading countries in the production of scientific articles in the field of PCOS. Of overall 6598 scientific publications related to PCOS worldwide, 209 articles were authored by Iranian researchers. In other words, 4.3 % of scientific productions in this field are from our country. In this list, America ranks first with 1670 (34.3%) articles, followed by China with 567 (11.7%), and Turkey with 564 (11.6%) publications ranking second and third. Of the fifteen Iranian research pioneers, each one had at least seven papers in the field of PCOS.
Iran ranks among the top ten countries with regard to scientific publications worldwide. Considering the lack of knowledge in certain aspects of PCOS identifying more pioneers in this research field will help highlighting new research topics for future researches in this field.