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Webometric analysis of Iranian universities of medical sciences

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Abstract

Introduction

There are many researches have been conducted on webometrics, especially the impacts of websites on each other and the web impact factor. However, there are few studies focusing on the websites of Iranian universities. This study analyzed the websites of Iranian universities of medical sciences according to the webometric indicators.

Method and materials

In a cross-sectional study, the number of web pages, inlinks, external inlinks and also the overall and absolute web impact factors for Iranian universities of medical sciences with active exclusive websites were calculated and compared using AltaVista search engine. Finally, the websites were ranked based on these webometric indicators.

Results

The results showed that the website of Tehran university of medical sciences with 49,300 web pages and 9860 inlinks was ranked first for the size and number of inlinks, while its impact factor was ranked 38th. Rafsanjan UMS with 15 web pages and 211 links had the highest rank for the web impact factor among Iranian universities of medical sciences.

Discussions and conclusions

The study revealed that Iranian universities of medical sciences did not have much impact on the web and were not well known internationally. The major reason relies on linguistic barriers. Some of them also suffer from technical problems in their web design.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scientometry Department, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Farzaneh Aminpour & Payam Kabiri

  2. Medical Education Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Farzaneh Aminpour

  3. Faculty of Management and Medical Information Science, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Farzaneh Aminpour

  4. Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Payam Kabiri

  5. Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Zahra Otroj

  6. Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, School of Medicine, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran

    Abbas Ali Keshtkar

  7. Golestan Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran

    Abbas Ali Keshtkar

Authors
  1. Farzaneh Aminpour
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  2. Payam Kabiri
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  3. Zahra Otroj
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  4. Abbas Ali Keshtkar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Farzaneh Aminpour.

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Aminpour, F., Kabiri, P., Otroj, Z. et al. Webometric analysis of Iranian universities of medical sciences. Scientometrics 80, 253–264 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-2059-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-2059-y

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