A Survey of Scientific Outputs of Iranian Researchers in the Field of Poisonous Animals in Web of Science: a Scientometric Study

ISI Web of Science (WOS) is the world's most prestigious database that is used in order to evaluate and rank the countries, researchers, institutions, and universities. Therefore, determining the status of Iranian articles in this database in the field of poisonous and venomous animals is important. Quantitative and qualitative assessments of scientific outputs are the main goals of this study. In order to conduct this research, 220 articles written by Iranian researchers during 1973 to 2010 in the field of poisonous animals which have been indexed in Web of Science were reviewed. Scientometric, survey and citation analysis methods have been used. In this research, number of papers in different years, annual growth rate of papers, international collaboration of Iranian researchers with their counterparts from other countries, impact factor, average citation per paper in comparison with some selected countries, subject categories, and the most prolific institutes and authors have been surveyed. Results of the present study showed that from 2004 onwards, the number of papers increasingly enhanced. The most collaboration of Iranian authors has been done respectively with their counterparts and colleagues from USA, Belgium and Scotland; Poisonous animals articles have had the most interaction with the fields of toxicology and pharmacology. The mean impact factor was 1.731 and the average citation per paper was 4.15. Tehran University, Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Tarbiat Modarres University were the most Iranian prolific universities and institutes respectively. Number of articles in the field of poisonous animals has been increased significantly in recent years. The most collaboration was with USA and European countries respectively. The average citation per paper of Iranian articles in poisonous animals is lower than selected countries. Besides universities, Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, is among the most prolific universities and institutes. The mean impact factor of Iran in poisonous animals has relatively good position in comparison with other fields of Iran, but lower than other fields in some mentioned countries.