[Ranking of Iranian pharmacy school websites based on web impact factor]

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