Analysis Of Scientif Ic Production In The Field Of Research Ethics In Scopus A Comparison Of International Output

Journal of Scientometric Res. 2019; 8(2):x-x
http://www.jscires.org Research Article
Journal of Scientometric Research, Vol 8, Issue 2, May-Aug 2019 1
Analysis of Scientific Production in the Field of
Research Ethics in Scopus: A Comparison of
International Output
Copyright
© The Author(s). 2017 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/li-
censes/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the
source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes
were made.
Somayeh Parvin1
, Somayeh Panahi2,
*, Shakil Ahmad3
1
Instructor Medical Library and Information Science, Behbahan Faculty of Medical Sciences, Behbahan, IRAN
2
Department of Knowledge and Information Science, University of Qom, Qom, IRAN.
3
Deanship of Library Affairs, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, SAUDI ARABIA.
ABSTRACT
This study aims to provide a clear picture of the scientific field of production in
research ethics at the regional, national and international level. This is a descriptive
and Scientometrics study. The sample includes all the scientific production in the
research ethics field. The focus on Iranian productions was indexed in Scopus by
the end of 2017. The results showed that the United States was the highest producer
(31.6%), followed by United Kingdom (16.9%), while Iran ranked 25th
worldwide. Iran
was ranked first amongst Middle East countries. The highest level of cooperation was
in the United States. The H-Index result for Iranian production calculated the value
of 9. The citation per document was examined at a rate of 3.75. The study revealed
that academic systems and universities globally would require constant monitoring
and ethical evaluation of scientific indicators, to achieve the first scientific level in the
region.
Keywords: Research Ethics, Scientometrics, Scientific production, Iran.
Correspondence
Mrs. Somayeh Panahi
Department of Knowledge and Information
Science, University of Qom, Qom, IRAN.
E-mail: panahi.s1985@gmail.com
Received: ??????
Revised: ??????
Accepted: ??????
DOI: 10.5530/jscires.6.3.25
INTRODUCTION
Currently, a criterion for determining the status and authority
of countries are gaining much attention, which depends on
their scientific outputs. It can be argued that there is a direct
relationship between research and the progress of each country.
The scientific production can be advanced technology and
create employment, wealth and ultimately, social security.
It is not surprising that some industrialized countries publish
more than others including The United States, China, The
United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, Italy,
India, Spain and Australia. They have produced scientific
production in the world (available at https://www.scimagojr.
com). It is also claimed that any country is just a forerunner
of an academic discipline and has attempted to surpass other
competitors by developing its publishing in various languages
of the world. The distribution of documents is not worthy
on its own but arise significant importance with the use of
results and impacts of these publications. Scientometrics is one
of the most common ways to evaluate scientific activities and
research management. A quantitative review of scientific
production, scientific policymaking, scholarly communication
and map drawing science identified the prominent authors,
journals and institutes topics in the field. It also showed an
interesting comparison of each component’s rating throughout
the world.[1]
The first goal of the Scientometrics approach is
to visualize logical maps in various fields of science. It also
helps to establish scientific communication between
researchers.[2]
For Scientometrics methods, it is necessary to
use valid citation indexes, including Scopus, Google Scholar,
RePEc, CiteSeer, ISI and ISC. The citation indexes are among
the important factors in extending the horizon of knowledge
and are effective in identifying the level of research and
development in different countries.
Iran is one of the top countries in the field of scientific
production. According to reliable statistics, the number of
articles in Iran’s highly cited journal has increased from 56 in
2007 to 223 in 2015 and 350 in 2016. The number of Iran’s
top articles was 197 in 2017. Iran’s contribution to the global
production in the science world has also increased, along
with the increase in the quantity of world scientific production
(Persian news; https://www.mehrnews.com). Research as an
informed, voluntary and effective action can have significant
effects on human destiny and it can be followed by unethical,

Parvin, et al.: Research Ethics
2 Journal of Scientometric Research, Vol 8, Issue 2, May-Aug 2019
immoral and anti-humanistic orientations. Much of the issues
regarding scientific research have recently been addressed in
most countries, including Iran. These problems pertain mostly
to ignoring the ethics of research in the field of scientific
research to identify prominently. They have published news
about the publication of invalid articles from a large number
of Iranian articles, dissertations and prestigious journals. For
example, we can refer to the news that was published in the
Journal of Electronic Science as titled “A shady market in
scientific papers mars Iran’s rise in science”.[3]
These allegations
against the scientific community of Iran can hurt minds, but
they have always been able to overcome their negative
attitudes with the highest degrees of science production in
the world. Academic misconduct, as defined as any cheating
that occurs about formal academic researches, including,
falsification, fabrication, plagiarism, prejudice and accusing
others have been mentioned as fake, fraud. By considering the
importance of these issues around the world, especially in Iran.
This study intends to analyze the historiography of scientific
products around research ethics and the growth rate and
development of those effects over the past years up to 2017.
The goal of this paper is to study Iranian outputs, particularly
the scientific area of research ethics over the years until 2017.
Objectives
In this paper, we will address these main objectives:
• Ranks of the top 10 countries in the field of research ethics
• Ranks of the Middle East countries in the field of scientific
production in the field of research ethics.
• The trend of Iranian scientific production in the field of
research ethics
• Ranking of the top universities in Iran in the field of
scientific production in the field of research ethics
• Scientific cooperation with Iran in the field of research
ethics
• Subject dispersion of Iranian scientific productions in the
field of research ethics
Literature Review
There are lots of literature on Scientometrics, which attempts
to examine the rate of scientific production and research areas
at the national and international levels. However, all the studies
on science, technology and knowledge production from 2000
to 2009 were found in two periphery countries: Brazil and
South Korea.[4]
Megnigbeto et al. compared scientific indica-
tors related to Benin, Senegal and Ghana.[5a,b]
The purpose of
Al-Khalifa’s study was to analyze Saudi scientific output in
the field of computer science in the Web of Science database,
from 1978 to 2012[6]
Chang conducted a bibliometric analysis
of data in the Web of Science database to explore the research
partners of industries and determine which industries generate
scientific articles, observing industrial trends in Taiwan from
1982 to 2011.[7]
Parvin analyzed Iranian literature on the field
of information security in comparison with the same studies in
the Middle East and the world.[8]
Andrea, in his thesis, focused
on the analysis of scientific and technological production
capabilities and innovation trends present in Latin America
and the Caribbean.[9]
In another study, Zapp studied the evolu-
tion of scientific output from international intergovernmental
research organizations, intergovernmental organizations and
non-governmental organizations in the period 1950-2015.[10]
Powell and his colleague; Dusdal studied on growth in scien-
tific productivity over the 20th
century resulted significantly
from three major European countries including France,
Germany and the United Kingdom.[11]
The purpose of the
study of Parvin was to analyze Iranian literature in the field
of social networks in comparison with the same studies at the
cross the world.[12]
There has been research on global scientific production.[4-7,11,13-17]
There are also studies of Iranian scientific production/produc-
tivity in specific areas such as substance abuse and addiction,[18]
sports,[16]
Social Networks,[13]
immunology,[19]
information
security.[8]
Expanding on this, there has also been much research on
research ethics. This is the first time that a scientific map of the
indexed articles in this area is being drafted. This area lacked
the study of Scientometrics and no further research has been
done so far. Research ethics is the application of moral rules
and a professional code of conducts to the collection, analysis,
reporting and publication of information about research
subjects, particularly, active acceptance of subjects’ right to
the privacy, confidentiality and informed consent. Until now,
sociologists (and social scientists generally), often displayed
arrogance in their treatment of research subjects, justifying
their actions by the search for truth. This trend is now
being redressed, especially in industrial societies with the
adoption of the formal code of conduct and a greater emphasis
on ethical research procedures. Ethical issues are the most
salient about case-studies and other research designs which
focus on very few cases (with the risk that they remain identifi-
able in reports). Public opinions now resist invasions of privacy
for genuine research purposes just as much as for publicity
seeking mass media stories, as evidenced by periodic increased
in survey non-response, even though anonymity is effectively
guaranteed in large-scale data collections.[20]
Research ethics
also provides guidelines for the responsible conduct of
biomedical research. Furthermore, research ethics educates
and monitors scientists researching to ensure a high ethical
standard.[21]
The following is a rough and general outline
of some ethical principles should not be capitalized. Various

was reported to be 42.64%. In other words, 42.64% of the
Iranian productions have been done by affiliation at least one
non-Iranian. However, the level of international scientific
cooperation among Iranians in the fields of nursing, informa-
tion security and social networks reported 22.12,[30]
26.08,[8]
29.20% respectively that these are lower than research ethics
field. The findings of this study showed that at the end of
2017, the United States as the most important collaboration
partner of Iranian researchers’ publication, followed by
Australia and Canada in this field. As a result, increasing the
level of cooperation with these countries will increase the
scientific production.
Several studies confirmed an increase in scientific production
in all the fields in Iran. Saboury evaluated Iranian papers in
Web of Science from 1993 to 2002 and compared the research
status of Iran with other Asian countries.[31]
He concluded that
the percentage of Iranian scientific production experienced an
increase over the period.[32]
studied the scientific growth of
Iranian researchers based on Medline database from 1976 to
2003 and reported a sharp increase in Iranian scientific production
towards the end of the period.[30]
also evaluated the scientific
output of Iran from 1967 to 2003 and compared Iran with
15 countries in the year 2000. Accordingly, Iranian’s contribu-
tion to science increased from.0003% in 1970 to.29% in 2003.
Noroozi et al.[33]
compared Iran, Turkey and Egyptian scientific
productions indexed in WOS from 2005 to 2006. Based on
Parvin et al.[8]
in documents of social networks field, Turkey,
Iran and Egypt stood in the first, second and third places
respectively among the Middle East countries.[8]
According
to this study, Turkey, Iran, Israel produced the most research
among countries in the Middle East. In Iran, the number of
published articles has increased significantly in general and
applied sciences, including medicine and its subspecialties during
recent years. In 2006, Butler reported that Iran after Turkey
stood in the second position amongst Islamic countries
according to the number of published papers. The United
States is at the forefront in producing scientific research papers
at the international level, followed by the United Kingdom
and Canada. Iran is ranked in 25th
position. To further approx-
imate the USA proportions, Iranian researchers should increase
the number of papers published in the Scopus indexed journals
particularly, the top-ranked Cite Score journals.
Meanwhile, Iran is ranked second in the Middle East as nursing
studies[30]
but it is ranked first in the field of information
security in the Middle East.[8]
Researchers in the field of research ethics in these countries
have higher productivity than Iranian researchers in research
ethics; it would be very interesting to compare the cultural and
organizational conditions that foster this increased productivity.
Is the amount of time dedicated to research (as opposed to
teaching and administration) in these countries longer than
codes address: Honesty, Objectivity, Integrity, Carefulness,
Openness, Respect for Intellectual Property, Confidentiality,
Responsible Publication, Responsible Mentoring, Respect
for colleagues, Social Responsibility, Non-Discrimination,
Competence, Legality, Animal Care and Human Subjects
Protection.[22]
It is important for researchers to learn how to
interpret, access and applies various research rules and how
to make decisions and act ethically in various situations.
Researchers should be familiar with major concepts such
as research misconduct. Types of research misconduct are
including: (a) Fabrication (Data forgery can be defined as
making data and results, recording and reporting in a fraudulent
way),[23]
(b) Falsification (Data distortion means manipulating
material, equipment and research process, or modifying and
deleting data and results in such a way that the reported results
are different from actual results), (c) Plagiarism (It refers to the
unintended use of, or the disclaimer of, words, ideas, phrases,
claims, or citations of others without reference to the owner’s
ideas).[24]
Overall, research ethics should include protections of
human and animal subjects. However, not all researchers use
human or animal subjects, nor are the ethical dimensions of
research confined solely to protections for research subjects.
Other ethical challenges are rooted in many dimensions of
research, including:
• The collection, use and interpretation of research data
• Methods for reporting and reviewing research plans or
findings
• Relationships among researchers with each another
• Relationships between researchers and those who will be
affected by their research
• Means for responding to misunderstandings, disputes, or
misconduct
• Options for promoting ethical conduct in research
According to Studies revealed, the majority of publications of
Iranian research included nursing, traditional medicine,
immunology, orthopedics, dentistry and parasitological in
recent years.[19,25]
Collaboration is a fundamental aspect of scientific research
activity, especially international collaboration. It is also
considered a key issue for solving complex problems in many
areas of science.[26]
The practice of collaboration and especially
international collaboration, is becoming a widespread
phenomenon. Some studies have shown a constant increase
related to the number of papers with international collabo-
rations;[27,28]
and enhance the quality of research, resulting
in higher numbers of scholarly output and higher impacts
of journals.[29]
The rate of international cooperation among
Iranian researchers in research ethics with other researchers

Microsoft Excel software was used for data analysis. Data
analysis method has been descriptive.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Finding
A brief review of scientific output in the world demonstrates
there have been 16,615 documents in the field of research
indexed in the Scopus database before 2017. Three hundred
thirty-one documents have been published in the Middle East,
with 68 in Iran.
Figure 1 shows the scientific output of research ethics of the
top 10 countries based on Scopus data.
There are top 10 countries which are in the scientific field of research
ethics in the world. The United States has 5,253 articles,
followed by the United Kingdom and Canada with 2822,
1654 articles, respectively. The number of articles at Scopus in
other countries, in descending order includes Australia (1,087),
Germany (479), Brazil (421), Netherlands (399), France (341),
South Africa (336) and Sweden (305). Meanwhile, Iran was
ranked 25th
internationally, having 68 documents. The study
revealed that the growth rate of publications in the region as
well as in Iran over the past ten years has been increasing on a
relatively modest range, except for in 2015 and 2016.
Figure 2 shows the ranks of the Middle East countries in
producing science in the field of research ethics.
As mentioned above, approximately 331 documents (2%) of
the scientific output of the world in Scopus belongs to the
Middle East countries. According to the ranking presented in
Figure 2, Turkey leads with 26.88% of published documents
(89 documents), followed by Iran with the rate of 20.54%
(68 documents) among these 16 countries in the field of
research ethics.
Figure 3 shows the trend of producing in the field of research
ethics ten years ago in Iran, compared to the Middle East.
in Iran? Do researchers in these countries have a better accep-
tance rate in journals (because of better English writing, better
access to editors, better knowledge of what are the trend
research topics)? Do Iranian research ethics researchers produce
more “invisible work” than other countries’? Do researchers
in these countries have a more competitive environment or
a more collaborative one? Are international co-authors a
factor in increased productivity? These and other questions
are of particular interest if the Iranian research ethics committees
hope to achieve a production level comparable to these countries.
In Iran, Tehran University of medical sciences has the most
scientific output in the field of research ethics; this finding is
consistent with the previous review,[16,30]
followed by Mashhad
University of medical sciences and Iranian ministry of health
and medical education. According to research findings, almost
half of Iran’s scientific productions in the field of research
ethics have been published during the span of 5 years from
2013 to 2017.
In scientific circles, the reference is the information that is
necessary for the reader to identify and use the funding sources.
In terms of quality indicators, it seems that Iranian scientific
productions in the field of research ethics are favorable so that
a total of 68 Iranian articles in this field received 255 citations.
The citation index for each article is 3.75, which was obtained
at the rate of 1.38 throughout five years. In other words, in
the last five years of the research period, Iranian articles have
received fewer citations. This finding is also in line with the
field of poisonous animals, the index was cited for each
article 4.15[19]
and in the modern Chinese medical biology
field 3.9.[34]
Also, toxicology,[25]
information security[8]
and
social networks [8]
were 3.48, 5.49 and 3.46 respectively.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The area of study is Scientometrics, applying survey and
citation analysis and as well as Scientometrics methods have
reviewed all the indexed research ethics documents in this
study at the Scopus database until 2017. Indeed, several citations
could vary depending on each database (Web of Knowledge,
Scopus and Google Scholar, etc.).[35]
Scopus, which is the
database consulted in this study, stores the most relevant
scientific literature produced and published worldwide in
different areas of sciences and disciplines.[36]
The choice of
such comprehensive coverage of the study was necessary
because of the subject of research ethics was studied by
researchers from many different fields of science such as
humanities, technology, computers, engineering, medicine,
law, politics and medical science. As such, this survey was
found more suitable for this research. All articles indexed by
Scopus listed as their affiliated countries were processed.
The filter is based on keywords such as “Research Ethics.”
Figure 1: Top 10 countries in producing science in the field of research ethics
in the world.

The findings show that the total numbers of the Iranian docu-
ments are 68 with 255 citations in the field of research ethics
at Scopus (Table 1). There are 36 documents with 50 citations
received over five years and almost 50% of the total citations
refer to indexed documents in the last five years.
The average citation per paper is one of the most important
quality indicators to evaluate and rank the articles, researchers,
subject areas and countries. The citation per document for
all documents determined 3.75, while the same indicator was
1.38 over five years. The H-index of total documents has
obtained 9, while H-index of the five years was 4. The
number and percentage of international cooperation for all
the documents were 29 and 42.64 respectively and it reached
21 and 30.88 for the years 2013 to 2017.
Figure 5 reveals the top 10 countries that have the most
cooperation with Iran in the field of research ethics products.
The research concluded that the documents had at least one
foreign author as international cooperation. Results show that
the highest level of Iran’s cooperation has been with the United
States with eight articles, followed by three joint articles with
both Australia and Canada.
The Scopus database itself categorized published papers in
various subject areas (Figure 6).
Figure 4 shows the most prolific universities and institutes of
Iran in the field of research ethics to 2017.
According to the results presented in Figure 4, Tehran
University of Medical Sciences Mashhad University of
Medical Sciences and Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical
Education have the highest number of articles in all univer-
sities in Iran (37, 5 and 4 documents respectively), followed
by Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti
University of Medical Sciences, Iran University of Medical
Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, NIOC
Medical Education and Research Cancer, Iranian Academy of
Medical Sciences and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (with
4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2 and 2 documents respectively).
Scientometrics indices of Iranian scientific production in the
field of research ethics at the Scopus database are presented
in Table 1. These indicators include several documents,
citations and the average citation per document, the percent-
age of documents resulting from international cooperation by
2017. This information is compared with the same indicators
over five years from 2013 to 2017 at the Scopus database.
Figure 2: Ranking of Middle East countries in producing science in the field
of research ethics.
Figure 3: Comparing a trend of producing science in the field of research
ethics in Iran and the Middle East ten year.
Figure 4: Top10 Iranian Institutions with the highest production in the field
of research ethics.
Table 1: Comparing Iranian scientific products in the field of research
ethics over five years.
International
Collaboration
%
International
Collaboration
#
h-Index
Citation
per
Document
Total
Citations
Total
Documents
Year
42.64
29
9
3.75
255
68
All Years
30.88
21
4
1.38
50
36
2013-2017

Figure 6 reveals the subject distribution of Iranian scientific
products in the field of research ethics indexed in Scopus.
Iranian documents in the field of research ethics were distrib-
uted more in the field of Medicine as 47 documents, followed
by Nursing, Social Science and, Biochemistry.
DISCUSSION
In the present era, with the advent of information and com-
munication technology, the speed of exchange, transmission
and provision of information has increased dramatically and
easy access to information has been facilitated. In such a space,
the protection of intellectual property of researchers and
writers becomes more important and observance of ethical
principles and maintaining trust is more important than the
use of materials and research by writers and researchers.
However, the advancement of new technologies has provided
opportunities for improving the quality and improvement of
human life. On the other hand, it has brought challenges and
threats to human societies. Research can lead to the develop-
ment of human science and human perfection, but if it goes in
the wrong direction, it will cause irreparable damage.
Today, inventions, discoveries, scientific innovations and the
application of their technologies, advances in biological
sciences, especially research on stem cells; laboratory genetics,
similarity, etc. have created moral, legal and social quandaries.
To address these controversial issues, most of the world’s
countries have focused on scientific and technological ethics,
particularly bioethics, in their agenda. Through modern
technology makes easier the dissemination of knowledge and
academic achievements are available to the audience at a
modest cost or free of course. Sometimes, some people misuse
this position. Incorrect use of these conditions creates issues for
the community, especially in scientific fields. An example of
these abuses is plagiarism and illegal and non-scientific
transcripts. The fact that sometimes in some parts of the world,
including Iran, it is seen as a dangerous cancerous mass, causing
the roots of knowledge and research to have a drought.
Actually, in Iran, due to the implementation of inappropriate
educational policies, the phenomenon of thesis sales and
scientific plagiarism and transcription has become a fundamental
problem. It has become a serious concern for the government
and the executive authorities of the country in addition to the
scientific and academic community. Even the statistics of
scientific production indexed and journals of globe sometimes
seem suspect and with further investigation of the relevant
authorities have been proven the ethical scandals of various
researchers.
Therefore, the present research attempts to show how much
this topic was specifically studied by researchers from different
countries. It seeks to examine the importance of the issue of
research ethics from a global point of view using a scien-
tometric approach focusing on Iran’s scientific production.
Scientometrics is the science of measuring science by which
it made it easy to study and discover the system and structure
of a scientific field quantitatively. It defines the achievements
of an intellectual realm and even predicts the possible lines
for further progress. Scientometrics is also trying to describe
and characterize the science and research using quantitative
data related to the production, distribution and use of scientific
texts. Based on Iran’s 20-year national vision document,
Iran is pictured as the highest developed country in science/
technology by 2025. Due to the major role of research in the
sustainable development of countries, research policies should
be formulated according to the updated information on
science production and research output of each country. The
number of published articles of a country is frequently used
to Scientometrics indicator of the scientific position of that
country. Undoubtedly, attempts to reach the top position in
any field of science will make moral challenges that Iran has
not excluded. In any case, researchers must be aware of the
following scientific guidelines for the research process, by
the principles of research ethics and be diligent in developing
these principles. Familiarity with ethical duties in research as
well as abuses in each stage of the research process is the first
effective step towards increasing ethical observance in
Figure 5: Top10 collaborating countries with Iranian researchers in the field
of research ethics.
Figure 6: Subject area distribution of Iranian production in the field of
research ethics.

scientific research. For example, each researcher is required to
observe all ethical principles from the beginning to the end
phase of submission. Otherwise, his research will become
ambiguous and questionable.[21]
Therefore, this research
attempts to measure the extent of Iran’s attention to the field
of ethics of research in various aspects. Research ethics is used
for many different political, economic and social purposes.
It seems better for Iran and other countries to develop their
scientific cooperation programs as a desirable opportunity
to benefit from the knowledge and experience of advanced
countries in providing research.
In recent years, Scientometrics is one of the most commonly
used methods for evaluating scientific activities. It is mainly
the statistics for the foreign citation databases and the centers
are systematically accessed and ranked based on the statistics
of English articles provided by universities In Iran. The role of
proper research has been prominent in increasing the scientific
status of society in all its aspects. A researcher must follow all
the requirements throughout the conduct of an investigation
because it is obligatory. In all the scientific research, the obser-
vations of the scientific process of research are indispensable
and indisputable, which should be considered by all researchers.
The purpose of this study is to examine the scientific output
of Iran in the field of ethical research as one of the most
challenging discussions in scientific circles.
At first, the ethical research approach was widely developed
as a concept in the field of medical research, including experi-
ments in the field of human studies and animal experiments.
There are various aspects of academic misconducts, such as
scam, shadowing, data spoofing and plagiarism worldwide.
Iran is also known as a country susceptible to this high risk,
resulting from the weakness of its educational policies. For
example, inappropriate policies for the promotion of faculty
members and the admission of postgraduate students only
require the publishing of their articles in the world’s top
journals.[37]
In this way, researchers inevitably engage in
inappropriate scientific actions and therefore, morally hurt
the scientific community unwittingly. One of the results of
this research is the important level of Iranian productions on
research ethics in the Middle East, which can be regarded
as a stern warning. As the research findings showed, it was
the largest scientific production in the field of medical ethics,
nursing and social sciences. Therefore, it is suggested that in
the future research, a more detailed analysis of the content of
these articles should be made to obtain more visible results
from the observance or non-observance of research ethics in
each of these areas. The results are indicated that Iranian
documents in the field of research ethics were distributed
more in the field of Medicine, Nursing, Social Science and,
Biochemistry, respectively. It can be concluded considering
the number of Iranian productions in these fields mentioned
above. Iran’s greatest ethical challenges are in these areas and
can be considered as the most important finding of the
research. It is expected that authorities will use their best
efforts to solve the problems in this area.
This article highlights the need for education, training and
research in various aspects of research ethics like misconducts.
It often seems that misconduct has not occurred deliberately
due to researchers’ lack of knowledge of the proper methods
of studying and adapting the work of others. Therefore,
workshops, conferences and summer schools can associate the
members with Guidelines, Regulations and Ethics Instructions.
By using a technology-based approach to educate a large part
of the problem of teaching, the method of research can be
promoted in all areas of science.
The scientific methods of ethics show that the number of
publications is increasing, so it is expected to attempt to
improve the level of international cooperation and provide
the necessary facilities for top universities. According to the
forecasts, it seems that Iran will achieve the highest status of
scientific production by 2025, so Scientometrics studies are
important in this regard. Because of such studies, the practical
map of each field of science can be drawn and it will adopt the
important policies based on the results.
Here, we can point out to the example of one of the effective
actions of the National Ethics Committee in Iran’s biomedical
research. In recent years, workshops, conferences and summer
schools of ethics about research have begun in Iran. In this
regard, some different privileges were considered for
universities that are leading these types of actions. Significantly,
these practices have yielded beneficial outcomes and these
universities have been able to take effective steps to improve
the ethical research approach of national research. So that the
ethical issues encountered in national research are discussed
in these courses and ultimately, by taking good ideas that are
possible to research on them, many ethical problems have to
address in biomedical research.
CONCLUSION
In this study, it was concluded that Scientometrics is one of
the most commonly used methods for evaluating scientific
productions and activities. It is mainly the statistics for the
foreign citation databases and the centers are systematically
accessed and ranked based on the statistics of English articles
provided by universities in Iran. The role of proper research
has been prominent in increasing the scientific status of society
in all its aspects. From the results, the following conclusions
can be drawn:
v Based on Iran’s 20-year national vision document, Iran
is pictured as the highest developed country in science/
technology by 2025 and it seems that Iran will achieve the
highest status of scientific production by 2025.
v In recent years, workshops, conferences and summer
schools of ethics about research have begun in Iran. In

2018;33(1):3-26. http://doi.org/10.1177/0268580917742003
12. Powell JJW, Dusdal J. The European Center of Science Productivity: Research
Universities and Institutes in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. In the
Century of Science:The GlobalTriumph of the Research University. 2017;55-83.
http://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-367920170000033005
13. Parvin S, Panahi S, Velmurugan Ch. Research Impact of the Iranian Publications
on Social Networks in Scopus Indexed. Library Philosophy and Practice. 2019;
5(6): 1-19. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/2397
14. Biglu MH, Movahedian G, Ghojazadeh M, Shahmohammadi G. Exploration of
Iranian Scientific Productions on Biomarkers in Medline 2000-2011. Journal of
Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. 2013;23(107):140-5. Retrieved
from http://jmums.mazums.ac.ir/article-1-2987-en.html
15. Collazo-Reyes F
. Growth of the number of indexed journals of Latin America
and the Caribbean: the effect on the impact of each country. Scientometrics.
2014;98(1):197-209. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1036-2
16. Kharabaf S, Abdollahi M. Science growth in Iran over the past 35 years. Journal
of Research in Medical Sciences. 2012;17(3):1- 5.
17
. Yousefi M, Siamian H, Jahani MA, Yaminifirouz M. Scientific production of
sports science in Iran: A scientometric analysis. Acta Informatica Medica.
2014;22(3):195-8. http://doi.org/10.5455/aim.2014.22.195-198
18. Zhang L, Powell JJW, Baker DP
. Exponential Growth and the Shifting Global
Center of Gravity of Science Production, 1900–2011. Change: The Magazine of
Higher Learning. 2015;47(4):46-9. http://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2015.1053777
19. Rahimi-movaghar A, Amin-esmaeili M, Safarcherati A, Sarami H, Rafiey H. A
Scientometric Study of Iranian Scientific Productions in the Field of Substance
Use and Addiction Research in the Years, 2008 to 2012. 2015;7(3):99-108.
20. Yousefi A, Gilvari A, Shahmirzadi T, Hemmat M, Keshavarz M. A survey of
scientific production of Iranian researchers in the field of immunology in the ISI
database. Razi Journal of Medical Sciences. 2012;19(96):1-11. Retrieved from
http://rjms.iums.ac.ir/article-1-2130-en.html
21. Research Ethics. 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2018, from Encyclopedia.com
22. Paul B, DeBruin D, Bartels D, Chambers E, Kahn J. A GuideTo Research Ethics.
University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics. 2003;1-54. Retrieved from www.
bioethics.umn.edu
23. Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. The Responsible Conduct
of Research in the Health Sciences. Washington, DC: National Academies
Press. 1989. http://doi.org/10.17226/1388
24. Fischer P
. New Research Misconduct Policies. 2007
. Retrieved August 5, 2018,
from https://www.nsf.gov/oig/_pdf/presentations/session.pdf
25. Garfield E. Demand Citation Vigilance. The Scientist. 2002. Retrieved from
https://www.the-scientist.com/commentary/demand-citation-vigilance-53789
26. Khaseh A, Fakhar M, Susaraee M, Sadeghi S. A survey of scientific production
of Iranian researchers in the field of parasitology in the ISI database. Iranian
Journal of Medical Microbiology. 2010;4(3):38-47 [Article in Persian].
27
. Ibáñez A, Larrañaga P
, Bielza C. Cluster methods for assessing research perfor-
mance: exploring spanish computer science. Scientometrics. 2013;97(3):571-
600. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-0985-9
28. Bornmann L. Is collaboration among scientists related to the citation impact of
papers because their quality increases with collaboration? An analysis based
on data from F1000Prime and normalized citation scores. Journal of the
Association for Information Science and Technology. 2017;68(4):1036-47
. http://
doi.org/10.1002/asi.23728
29. Lancho BBS, Guerrero BVP
, Rodríguez ZC, DeMoya AF
. Citation flows in the
zones of influence of scientific collaborations. Journal of the American
Society for Information Science and Technology. 2012;63(3):481-9. http://doi.
org/10.1002/asi.21682
30. Khor KA,Yu LG. Influence of international co-authorship on the research citation
impact of young universities. Scientometrics. 2016;107(3):1095-110. http://doi.
org/10.1007/s11192-016-1905-6
31. Moin M, Mahmoudi M, Rezaei N. Scientific output of Iran at the threshold of
the 21st
century. Scientometrics. 2005;62(2):239- 48. http://doi.org/10.1007/
s11192-005-0017-5
32. Saboury AA. Iran science production in 2010. Science Cultivation. 2011;1(2):16-23.
33. Osareh F
, Marefat R.The growth of scientific productivity of Iranian researchers
in Medline. Rahyaft. 2005;35:39-44 [Article in Persian].
34. Noroozi CA, Nourmohammadi H, Vaziri E, Etemadifard A. Comparative evalu-
ation of Iran, Turkey and Egypt’s scientific productions through 2005 to 2006.
Rahyaft. 2007;40:65-75. [Article in Persian].
35. Makris GC, Spanos A, Rafailidis PI, Falagas ME. Increasing contribution of
China in modern biomedical research. Statistical data from ISIWeb of Knowledge.
Medical Science Monitor. 2009;15(12):SR15-21. http://doi.org/878261 [pii]
36. Bar-Ilan J. Which h-index? - A comparison of WoS, Scopus and Google Scholar.
Scientometrics. 2008;74(2):257-71. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-0216-y
37
. Wainer J, Xavier EC, Bezerra F
. Scientific production in computer science: A
comparative study of Brazil and other countries. Scientometrics. 2009;81(2):535-47
.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-2156-y
38. Daroeiyan S, Faghihi M. Investigating the motives and causes of Plagiarism in
Iran. Iranian Journal of Public Administration Mission. 2011;1(2):137-54.
this regard, some different privileges were considered for
universities that are leading these types of actions.
v Ethical issues encountered in national research are
discussed in these courses and ultimately, by taking
innovative ideas that are possible to research on them,
many ethical problems must address in biomedical
research.
v The results show that the total numbers of the Iranian
documents are 68 with 255 citations in the field of
research ethics at Scopus.
v Iranian documents in the field of research ethics were
distributed more in the field of Medicine as 47 documents,
followed by Nursing, Social Science and, Biochemistry.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank Mr. Hossein Heidari Leader and
Managing Director of Yabesh.ir Company (Data, Informa-
tion, Libraries, and Scientometric).
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors whose names are listed immediately below certify
that they have NO affiliations with or involvement in any
organization or entity with any financial interest or non-fi-
nancial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in
this manuscript.
ABBREVIATIONS
WOS: Web Of Science.
REFERENCES
1. Leydesdorff L, Milojevic S. Scientometrics. In International Encyclopedia of
the Social and Behavioral Sciences: Second Edition. 2015;322-7
. http://doi.
org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.85030-8
2. Rip A. Mapping of science: Possibilities and limitations. In Handbook of
Quantitative Studies of Science and Technology. North Holland. 1988;253-73.
Retrieved from https://www.elsevier.com/books/handbook-of-quantitative-
studies-of-science-and-technology/van-raan/978-0-444-70537-2
3. Stone R. A shady market in scientific papers mars Iran’s rise in science.
Science. 2016;9. http://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah7297
4. Fink D, Kwon Y, Rho JJ, So M. S and T knowledge production from 2000 to
2009 in two periphery countries: Brazil and South Korea. Scientometrics.
2014;99(1):37- 54. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1085-6
5. a. Mêgnigbêto E. Scientific publishing in Benin as seen from Scopus. Sciento-
metrics. 2013;94(3):911-28. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0843-1
6. b. Mêgnigbêto E. Scientific publishing in West Africa: Comparing Benin with
Ghana and Senegal. Scientometrics. 2013;95(3):1113-9. http://doi.org/10.1007/
s11192-012-0948-6
7
. Al-Khalifa HS. Scientometric assessment of Saudi publication productivity
in computer science in the period of 1978-2012. International Journal ofWeb Infor-
mation Systems. 2014;10(2):194- 208. http://doi.org/10.1108/IJWIS-01-2014-0001
8. Chang YW. Exploring scientific articles contributed by industries in Taiwan.
Scientometrics. 2014;99(2):599- 613. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1222-2
9. Parvin S, Sadoughi F , Karimi A , Mohammadi M , Aminpour F
. * A scientometric
analysis on growth of scientific production in the Information Security field at
International, Regional and National Levels. Webology. Press in 2019.
10. Andrea GV. Measurement of Scientific andTechnological Production: Innovation
Trends in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.
2017
.
11. Zapp M. The scientization of the world polity: International organizations and
the production of scientific knowledge, 1950–2015. International Sociology.

Analysis Of Scientif Ic Production In The Field Of Research Ethics In Scopus A Comparison Of International Output

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Ähnlich wie Analysis Of Scientif Ic Production In The Field Of Research Ethics In Scopus A Comparison Of International Output

Ähnlich wie Analysis Of Scientif Ic Production In The Field Of Research Ethics In Scopus A Comparison Of International Output (20)

Mehr von Joe Andelija

Mehr von Joe Andelija (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Analysis Of Scientif Ic Production In The Field Of Research Ethics In Scopus A Comparison Of International Output