Comparison of the Experts’ Perspec-tives to SciVal Database’s FWCI Index in Identification of Top Authors (Case Study: Top Iranian Authors in Fundamental Sciences Area from 2013 to 2018)

The most important objective of the present study is the comparison of a quantitative approach (scientometrics index of FWCI) and a qualitative approach (experts’ perspectives) in the identification of the top authors.

This is applied research and has been done by a combined method (qualitative and quantitative). In the qualitative part, the experts' points of view and in the quantitative part, the scientific-efficacy evaluation index have been used. Two sample volumes were comprised of the present study participants; the first group included the experts (n=10) and the second group consisted of the premier writers (n=87) based on FWCI. Checklist, questionnaire and SciVal database were the resources utilized for data gathering. The data were analyzed based on the nonparametric Friedman test.

the results of the present study indicated that the most important indicators influencing the scientific productivity of the authors, as viewed by the experts, are environmental and organizational factors (the time devoted to the research; the scientific rank of the affiliated organization and the fame of the author in national and international levels) while scientometrics indicators (number of papers, organizational goals, substantiations and credibility of the surveyed journal) were found with the highest mean values and ranks based on FWCI in respect to the other indicators in the top author group. However, no significant difference was evidenced between the two approaches in terms of the obtained ranks.

the present study indicated that there is no significant difference between the qualitative and quantitative approaches in terms of the obtained ranks (even with the transposition of the indicators in these two approaches) and the top authors feature the indicators intended by the scientific productivity area’s experts for primacy based on FWCI.