Citation Analysis of Papers of Research Projects at Faculty of Dentistry, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

We attempted to evaluate the researchers’ behavior in using scientific resources in the Faculty of Dentistry at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The importance of such study is highlighted when financial resources are limited and the scholarly publications are on an ever-increasing rate, necessitating the selection of the most efficient resources for the libraries. In Iran, 80.5% of the university central libraries depend on the policies of Ministry of Health and Medical Education for subscription to periodical publications on medical sciences.1 Since libraries serve as connection routes between previous knowledge and new information, their organizational needs should be analyzed by means of scientific methods as well as quantitative and statistical approaches.2 We evaluated the references of articles published as a derivative of approved research proposals in Faculty of Dentistry, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences during a five-year period (2005-2010) using scientometric methods. Only published journal articles present in the faculty member records were included. Departments of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology and Community Dentistry did not have papers that matched inclusion criteria. 74 papers with a total of 1723 references (mean number of references: 23.28) from nine departments were included (Table 1). Most references were journal articles (93.7%) and in English (98.3%).