Iranian research output in pediatrics: 1975-2007.

Background: By providing a picture from published articles in a field, bibliometric studies can inform policy-makers in their challenging research funding decisions. In this regard, we applied bibliometric analysis to the Iranian pediatrics articles published in PubMed indexed journals between 1975 and 2007.

Methods: We evaluated all pediatric articles that had been published from Iran in different PubMed indexed journals from 1975 to 2007. Journal data (i.e. date of publishing, journal name, impact factor of the journal, language), authors data (i.e. number of authors, international collaboration, affiliation of the corresponding author), and paper characteristics [i.e. type of article, research design, study population (neonate, infant, child, and adolescent), and specialty] were registered.

Results: During this period of time, 819 articles from Iran had been published in PubMed indexed journals, with a sharp increasing trend after 2002. Impact factors were up to 25.8. Paper had an international co-author in 13.7%. Regarding study population, 24.1% of studies were published on neonates, 23.6% on infants, and the remaining 66.3% of studies were performed on children and adolescents from 2 to 18 years old. Infectious disease was the most frequent area of research, followed by public health and metabolic disease. Original articles were the most frequent type (89.7%) of the published articles. Study design was cross-sectional in 51.2%, retrospective in 36.3%, and prospective in 11.6%. Clinical trials made up 4.8% of the total papers.

Conclusions: Contribution of Iran in production of pediatrics science is showing a sharp increase after 2002, this pattern is in parallel with other research fields.