[Attitudes of academic members of Iranian medical universities towards factors that increase h-index and paper citations]

Introduction: Nowadays, several indicators are used to evaluate scientific research outputs. The h index is one of the most common indices taken into account by many authorities to assess individuals and institutions, worldwide. In this study, the attitudes of medical sciences researchers towards significance of factors affecting the h index and citations were investigated

Methods: At the beginning of 2008, h-indices of all academic members of Iranian medical universities were screened based on the Scopus database. The attitudes of the faculty members who had an h index of one or more were investigated through a self-structured questionnaire in which increasing factors of the h index and paper citations was assessed. The data were analyzed using statistical methods

Results: The response rate was about 37%. The respondents' attitudes toward the items were not different between the group whose h-index was more than 6 to the other group whose h-index was less than 6. They respondents believed that publishing in high Impact Factor journals, well-designed researches considering the methodology, and to be the 1st study of its subject in the country and the world, are the most important factors in achieving citations. They did not believe that publishing review articles, contributing internationally, and having frequent paper topics were important in gaining citations

Conclusion: It seems that our researchers were not aware of the importance of publishing review articles and also in Open Access journals to increase citation rates. Proper interventions should be conducted to correct this attitude in order to increase the country's and researchers' citations

Isfahan university of medical sciences: two decades of scientific achievements

Several studies indicate a significant growth in research activities and scientific achievements in Iran during recent years. Isfahan University of Medical Sciences as a main university has had a special situation in this regard. The aim of this study was to determine science productions of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences since its establishment, during 1985 till 2007. This was a descriptive study, performed based on the data retrieved from ISI Web of Science and Medline databases. Researchers of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences indexed 313 scientific article in Medline and 350 in ISI. Among all schools and centers affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, school of medicine was ranked in the first place regarding scientific productions indexed in the 2 mentioned databases. This study demonstrates a significant growth in producing scientific articles in this university especially after the year 2000. Establishing the rewarding system for article writers, developing and expanding the infrastructures for internet, providing on-line services in this university, subscribing scientific databases and electronic journals, and running workshops in research methodology and scientific writing were among the most important factors causing this progress

Different duration of colchicine for preventing recurrence of gouty arthritis

Gout is a Common recurrent clinical syndrome characterized by increased serum uric acid and recurrent attacks of acute arthritis. Colchicine is used for Prophylaxis against recurrence of arthritis, but the duration of its administration has mentioned variable. In this study, optimal duration of prophylactic colchicine for prevention of gouty arthritis was assessed. In a clinical trial 190 patients with gouty arthritis divided randomly to group 1,2and 3 and received colchicine for 3 to 6, 7 to 9 and 10 to 12 months then colchicine discontinued and the patients followed one year for recurrence of arthritis. Result assessed by survival analysis with Kaplan 'Meier method. The probability of recurrence of arthritis [in order of duration of colchicine prophylaxis] was 54%, 27.5% and 23%, respectively. The difference between group one and others was statistically significant, but between group 2 and 3 was not statistically significant. The most suitable duration of colchicine prophylaxis that accompanied with lower recurrence rate was 7-9 months, which seems more cost -effective than 10-12 months regimen