ABSTRACT
Considering the importance of websites in informing users and establishing communications, universities have started to design their own websites for organizing and making their information accessible. Evaluation of these websites through webometric methods will help recognize pitfall and strong points to reach a better quality and constant improvement. This study was aimed at ranking Pharmacy School Websites in Iran by Web Impact Factor[WIF]. The webometric method was used in this study. The Data were collected via two search engines: Google and Yahoo. The population of the study consisted of 13 Pharmacy Schools in Iran. Excel and SPSS were used for statistical analysis. The results showed that website of Mashhad Pharmacy School with an WIF of 9.66 in Yahoo and with 44.96 in Google was at the highest rank. While Zanjan Pharmacy School with the WIF of 0.05 in Yahoo and with 0.067 in Google had the lowest rank. The results suggest that despite the low WIF, elements such as number of pages, mass of information and related links have an influence on WIF causing differences in ranking of Pharmacy Schools
Subject(s)
InternetABSTRACT
This study was to identity tiie best accessible electronic information resources for finding answers to clinical questions in Iranian National Medical Digital Library. 20 clinical questions were randomly selected from four areas: prevention and treatment, diagnosis, etiology and prognosis from American National Library of Medicine [NLM]. The keywords were searched in information resources such as Cochrane Database of Systematic Review [CDSR], ACP Journal Club [Ovid EBMR], Up to Date, and BMJ Clinical Evidence. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis. The answering capability of these resources to clinical questions was different. Up To Date provided answers to%85, BMJ to%35, CDSR to%30, and ACP to%15 of the questions, respectively. Precision of retrieved information by these systems was 0.29 for CDSR, 0.24 for BMJ, 0.06 for ACP, and 0.02 for Up To Date. The highest number of answers to questions categorized in the aforementioned sections was provided by Up To Date whose low precision led to the retrieval of irrelevant information [%97]. ACP showed less capability in answering to questions and could reply to questions about treatment and prognosis more than other areas. Up To Date was the best source in answering the clinical questions; however, when considering the quality of information, further research in this field is suggested
ABSTRACT
The homepage is the initial place at which the users are directed towards having access to the available resources. This makes web designing of high importance to university administrators and authorities. The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative evaluation of websites with WEBQEM in libraries of Medical Universities in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This study was a descriptive survey which was conducted on 24 websites. Data were gathered on the basis of WEBQEM checklists. Data analysis was performed by using SPSS software version 13. The evaluation was carried out by applying four criteria of WEBQEM. The websites' reliability was evaluated as "Very Good", with the average score of 0.82, and its efficiency as "Good" with the average score of 0.64. Usability and functionality scored an average of 0.5 and 0.52, respectively. Finally, half of the websites, on which this study was conducted, were evaluated as "Good "while the other half were as "Average". Considering the average scores obtained by using the four main criteria of the study, it was conceived that the in terms of functionality and usability of these web sites had some shortcomings. Although reliability and efficiency scored average, some of the websites were not of the expected quality by the main criteria