bibliometric analysis of pubmed-published Jordanian literature in the twentieth century

ABSTRACT

To identify the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of research published by Jordanian institutions in the medical and paramedical fields in the twentieth century. PubMed database was searched to identify relevant articles. Abstracts, full text, and or the 2003 Journal Citation Report were used to retrieve investigated characteristics. Jordanian medical institutions published 833 Pubmed-indexed articles in the twentieth century. Most of these articles [81%] were published in the last decade of the twentieth century. Articles published in Pharmacology Journals represented the largest proportion among other disciplines [12%], followed by dental, general medicine, infectious diseases, and obstetric journals, respectively. 72% of the articles were published in journals with assigned impact factors. However, the bulk of these articles [60%] were published in journals with impact factors of only 2 or less. It is worth nothing that only 16% of the published articles reflected experimental trials and only 3% were randomized and controlled, while 55% of the articles reflected observational studies. Jordan University of Science and Technology [JUST] researchers produced 44% of the total while Jordan University researchers produced 34%. Inter-institutional collaborative research was minimal and was dominated by JUST and the Ministry of Health. It is very clear that the Jordanian medical sciences research production has increased significantly in the last decade of the twentieth century. However, the quality of this research continues to be of low value. Efforts and resources are better directed toward multi-center, interventional, and more controlled research