A Bibliometric Analysis of Hematological Research Productivity among Five Islamic Countries during 1996 to 2013 (a 17-years period)

Background: This study made an attempt to make the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of hematological research output in five Islamic countries Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt which have the most scientific productions from 1996-2013. Materials and Methods: The current study was carried out during the 1st to 31st of September, 2014 in Blood Transfusion Research Center, Shiraz, Iran. This bibliometric study evaluated quantities and qualities of publications on hematological researches based on SCImago Journal Ranking, for over 17 years (1996- 2013). Strategy of the research was based on the keyword “hematology “. Neither language nor document type restrictions were considered. Data were extracted, tabulated, and compared to identify the ranks as well as trends. The ranking and analyzing indicators included were: ‘number of documents’, ‘citable documents’, ‘citation’, ‘self-citation’, ‘cites per documents’, ‘H-index’, ‘sited documents’, and ‘international collaboration’ . Results: The 5 Islamic countries published a total of 6914 documents in the field of hematology in this period. This number represents 0.248 % of the total documents produced globally in the field of hematology. Results revealed an increase in the number of publications and citable documents for these countries during 1996-2013. Comparison among these countries showed that Turkey, Iran, Egypt have the highest number of documents and citable documents, respectively. Furthermore Turkey and Iran led qualitative indicators like H-index and citation. Conclusion: Despite considerable improvement in recent years these Islamic countries should further support their scientific institutes to increase the quantity and quality of hematology publications. Keywords: Islamic countries, hematology, SCImago Journal Ranking, bibliometric study.