year 13, Issue 2 (11-2026)
CJS 2026, 13(2): 3-14 |
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Siamian H, Ramezani A. The Role of Citations Received from Books in the Assessment of Research Outputs in the Medical Field: A Case Study. CJS 2026; 13 (2) :3-14
URL: http://cjs.mubabol.ac.ir/article-1-439-en.html
URL: http://cjs.mubabol.ac.ir/article-1-439-en.html
Vice-Chancellor for Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran , ab.ramezani@behdasht.gov.ir
Abstract: (30 Views)
Background and aim: Modern bibliometric research, moving beyond conventional citation metrics, focuses on assessing the depth, longevity, and intellectual impact of scholarly output. Within this framework, citations received from books to articles can serve as a complementary indicator for examining the extent to which research findings are incorporated and reflected in the evaluation of scientific outputs. This study aims to analyze the scientific output of medical universities within Iran’s Macro-Region 1, as indexed in the Scopus database between 2000 and 2025, with a particular emphasis on the distribution and evaluative significance of citations originating from books.
Materials and methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted using bibliometric and citation analysis methods. The study population comprised all documents indexed in the Scopus database affiliated with the medical sciences universities of Iran’s Macro-Region 1 from 2000 to 2025. In this study, "type of citing source" was considered as one of the variables under investigation, and the number of citing documents in each of the source types—including journals, books, book series, conference proceedings, and trade publications—was extracted and reported. The total number of citations and the number of citing documents by source type were extracted from the Scopus Citation Overview. After data cleaning in Excel, descriptive analyses were performed, and collaboration networks of the countries of authors of books that had cited the works of universities of medical sciences in Macro-Region 1 of Iran were drawn for each university.
Findings: During the period from 2000 to 2025, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences had the highest volume of production and the highest h-index, with more than 12,000 indexed documents and an h-index of 174. Babol University of Medical Sciences ranked next with nearly 7,000 documents and h-index of 143. The h-indices of Golestan, Guilan, Semnan, and Shahroud Universities of Medical Sciences were 139, 127, 117, and 102, respectively. In all six universities, more than 95% of the citing documents were scientific journals. Books constituted the second group of citing sources, and their share in the studied universities was approximately between 2.5% and 2.8%. The highest number of citing documents belonged to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, with 307,056 documents, and the lowest number belonged to Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, with 97,524 documents.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the pattern of receiving citations from books in the selected universities of medical sciences exhibits a stable and similar trend (approximately 2.5% to 2.8%); consequently, book citations can be regarded as an objective and complementary indicator for assessing the penetration of medical knowledge into reference texts, beyond journal citations.
Materials and methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted using bibliometric and citation analysis methods. The study population comprised all documents indexed in the Scopus database affiliated with the medical sciences universities of Iran’s Macro-Region 1 from 2000 to 2025. In this study, "type of citing source" was considered as one of the variables under investigation, and the number of citing documents in each of the source types—including journals, books, book series, conference proceedings, and trade publications—was extracted and reported. The total number of citations and the number of citing documents by source type were extracted from the Scopus Citation Overview. After data cleaning in Excel, descriptive analyses were performed, and collaboration networks of the countries of authors of books that had cited the works of universities of medical sciences in Macro-Region 1 of Iran were drawn for each university.
Findings: During the period from 2000 to 2025, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences had the highest volume of production and the highest h-index, with more than 12,000 indexed documents and an h-index of 174. Babol University of Medical Sciences ranked next with nearly 7,000 documents and h-index of 143. The h-indices of Golestan, Guilan, Semnan, and Shahroud Universities of Medical Sciences were 139, 127, 117, and 102, respectively. In all six universities, more than 95% of the citing documents were scientific journals. Books constituted the second group of citing sources, and their share in the studied universities was approximately between 2.5% and 2.8%. The highest number of citing documents belonged to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, with 307,056 documents, and the lowest number belonged to Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, with 97,524 documents.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the pattern of receiving citations from books in the selected universities of medical sciences exhibits a stable and similar trend (approximately 2.5% to 2.8%); consequently, book citations can be regarded as an objective and complementary indicator for assessing the penetration of medical knowledge into reference texts, beyond journal citations.
Type of Study: Orginal |
Subject:
Bibliometrics
Received: 2026/06/7 | Revised: 2026/10/3 | Accepted: 2026/10/7 | ePublished: 2026/10/17
Received: 2026/06/7 | Revised: 2026/10/3 | Accepted: 2026/10/7 | ePublished: 2026/10/17
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