A Decade of Activity of the Medical Journal of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences through Scientometric Method (2010-2019)
Authors: Khasseh Ali Akbar , Ghazizadeh Hamid , Erfani Sedigheh 
Published: April 2022

Background. Journals are one of the channels of scientific communication among experts in the specialized fields of human knowledge as well as a tools for the rapid and widespread dissemination of new research achievements. It is important for founders of scientific journals to explore if the publications of the journal meet the performance of academic journals interms of subjects and collaboration of resarchers. The aim of this study was to analyze the scientometrics of a decade of activity of the Medical Journal of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Methods. The method of this research was scientometric analysis. The statistical population of the study included articles published in Tabriz Medical Journal from 2010 to 2019, which are indexed in the Islamic World Science Citation Database (ISC). We analysed publications in Tabriz Medical Journal from 2010 to 2019. To collect the required data, the title of the journal was searched on the website of the Iranian Science Citation Index in the "Advanced Search" section by filtering the desired years. BibExcel, Ucinet, NetDraw and VOS-Weaver software were used for data analysis. Results. Seven hundred ninety-four articles written by 1947 authors were published in Tabriz Medical Journal. The authors' names were repeated a total of 3111 times in various articles. The average number of authors for each article was 3.92. The citation effect (average citation per article) was 0/36. Each article included an average of 21.56 citations. 31 of the 794 papers were single-author papers while 763 papers were published as scientific collaborations between two or more researchers. There were four authors in the co-authored template. The largest co-authorship network consisted of 92 authors. 2449 keywords were used to describe 794 articles. These keywords were repeated a total of 3118 times in various articles. The most common keywords included "children", "rat" and "polymorphism" with frequencies of 20, 19 and 17, respectively. Thematic clusters included "quality of life", "type 1 diabetes", "aerobic activity", "antibiotic resistance", "breast cancer", "type 2 diabetes", "cardiovascular disease", "drinking water" and "Stress and depression". Conclusion. The results of this study indicated the existence of a good status of scientific collaborations among authors based on the patterns of writing journal articles. All thematic clusters obtained were in compliance with the thematic axes or thematic specializations existing in the journal. The average citation per article was about 0/36 percent; thus, the status of the citation rate for the journal articles was not high enough. The index of journals in international databases has a positive effect on increasing the citation rate of journal articles. Therefore, it is suggested that new measures be taken to increase the visibility and impact factor of the journal. Background Journals are one of the channels of scientific communication amongexperts in the specialized fields of human knowledge as well as a tool for the rapid and widespread dissemination of new research achievements. On the other hand, scientometric studies are used as a practical and appropriate tool for better understanding and mapping of research processes and scientific research. Analysis of scientific output and products contributes greatly to the scientific development of various subject areas, and enables researchers to become acquainted with the scientific gaps in research areas, identify reputable people in this field, and expand their research topics with a more open mind. The aim of this study was to analyze the scientometrics of a decade of activity of the Medical Journal of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Methods This study has used scientometrics analysis method and the social network analysis (SNA) approach. The statistical population of the study included articles published in Tabriz Medical Journal from 2010 to 2019, which are indexed in the Islamic World Science Citation Database (ISC). To collect the required data, the title of the journal was searched on the website of the Iranian Science Citation Index in the "Advanced Search" section by filtering the desired years. In order to prepare data for visualization and social network analysis, data processing was done using BibExcel software. In BibExcel the names of the authors and the keywords of the articles were matched with a format that is more frequent and logical in order to prevent their dispersion due to the multiplicity of writing formats. For example, keywords were examined in terms of plural and singular formats, use of synonymous words for a keyword, differences in written form, use of semicolons in some of them, and use of written English format. Also, the names of some authors were in several different formats, in order to prevent them from being counted as separate records in scientometrics software, they were modified and standardized to make the results more accurate, based on the most poular name of authors. "NetDraw" software was used to draw the co-authors' indexes of the article authors, Ucinet software was used to determine centrality degree, centrality betweenness and centrality closeness and the software (VOSViewer) was used to specify the co-occurrence network of keywords. To draw the thematic clustering network of journal articles, a threshold of 4 times repeating was considered eligibility criteria for keywords selection. By drawing thematic clusters, the thematic topics of the journal subset were identified. Results Seven hundred ninety-four articles have been published in Tabriz Medical Journal within this period. The number of authors was 1947. Also, the names of the authors have been repeated a total of 3111 times in various articles. The average number of authors for each article was 3.92. The citation effect (average citation per article) was 0/36. Out of all authors, only 122 articles (15.36%) received citations and had an H-index. This means that at least one of their articles has been cited at least once and 672 authors (84.63%) have not received any citation from any of their articles, and they do not have an H-index. The results showed that there were 21.56 sources for each article. According to the results, only 31 out of 794 articles were single-author articles and 763 articles were produced as scientific collaborations between two or more researchers. There were four authors in the co-authored template. The complete co-authorship network consists of 99 authors, each of whom has had at least 5 articles in this journal during the period. The network consists of three clusters with different numbers of nodes, which had 2 and 5 researchers, respectively, with the largest co-authorship network consisting of 92 authors. The Rank Centrality Index reflects the activity and reputation of a node among other nodes in the network. The use of Centrality Betweenness Index is to facilitate understanding how a given node is positioned in the shortest path among other nodes in the network. The Centrality Closeness Index (shorter path) of one factor relates to all other factors; it measures the centrality closeness distance of a node from the other nodes in the network, and provides the average length of the shortest path between that node and the other nodes in the network.Morteza Ghojazadeh had the highest centrality in all three indicators of centrality (degree, betweenness and Closeness). In describing 794 articles, 2449 keywords have been used, which have been repeated 3118 times in different articles. The most common keywords included "children", "rat" and "polymorphism" with frequencies of 20, 19 and 17, respectively. Thematic clusters included "quality of life", "type 1 diabetes", "aerobic activity", "antibiotic resistance", "breast cancer", "type 2 diabetes", "cardiovascular disease", "drinking water" and "Stress and depression". In total, 89 homonymous pairs were accompanied by a frequency of 1 to 4 times. The word pair "Escherichia coli - PCR" with a frequency of 4 had the most repetition. The synonymous network of repetitive keywords of the medical journal indicated the existence of 9 thematic clusters during the years 2010 to 2019. The largest thematic cluster consisted of 8 keywords and the smallest thematic cluster consisted of 2 keywords. The thematic clusters were: "Quality of life", "Type 1 diabetes", "Aerobic activity", "Antibiotic resistance", "Breast cancer", "Type 2 diabetes", "Cardiovascular disease", "Drinking water" And "Anxiety and Depression." Conclusion The results of this study indicated the existence of a good status of scientific collaborations between authors based on the patterns of writing journal articles. All thematic clusters obtained were in compliance with the thematic axes or the existing thematic specializations in the journal. The average citation per article is about 0/36 percent; thus, the status of the citation rate for the journal articles was not high enough. The index of journals in international databases has a positive effect on increasing the citation rate of journal articles. Therefore, it is suggested that new measures be taken to increase the visibility and impact factor of the journal. Practical implications of research According to the results of the present study, it can be stated that in order to draw a long-term perspective and formulate a strategy for the development of journals, it is necessary to evaluate journals with quantitative and qualitative scientometric indicators, and plannings for the future should be done by taking into account the results of journals in the past. Ethical Considerations The present study was extracted from the master's thesis of Knowledge and Information Science approved by Payame Noor University, Tonekabon branch, number 11112397. Conflict of Interests The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Acknowledgment We would like to thank all people who helped us.