Authors
1 Department of Librarianship and Medical Information Sciences, School of Management and Medical Information Sciences and Students Research Committee, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences,
2 Department of Knowledge and Information Sciences, School of Literature and Humanities, Lorestan University, Lorestan
3 Health Information Technology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
4 Department of Librarianship and Medical Information Sciences, School of Management and Medical Information Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, IsfahanDepartment of Librarianship and Medical Information Sciences, Virtual School, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The study aimed to assess interdisciplinary communication among various
Educational and Research Departments of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS) in clinical
medical sciences using social network analysis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out using scientometrics method and
interdisciplinary communication network analysis. Interdisciplinary network of 1298 articles in medical
sciences published in Journal of Isfahan Medical School was evaluated using macro‑ and micro‑level
criteria of network analysis. Ravar Matrix, UCINET, and VOSviewer software were used to analyze
the interdisciplinary network of medical sciences articles.
RESULTS: Findings showed that “Students Research Committee” and “School of Medicine,” the
affiliations of the medical students in general practice with scores of 272 and 197, “Epidemiology and
Biostatistics,” “Community Medicine,” and “Internal Medicine” with 170, 101, and 99, respectively,
possessed the first ranking of productivity index in scientific communication. Furthermore, in
betweenness centrality index, “Epidemiology and Biostatistics” (3427.807), “Students Research
Committee” (2967.180), and “Community Medicine” (1770.300) have an appropriate position in
the network. Based on the centrality index, “Epidemiology and Biostatistics” (22.412), “Students
Research Committee” (22.185) as well as “Community Medicine” and “School of Medicine” (both
21.554) acquired the least amount of distance with other nodes in network.
CONCLUSION: Given the increased specialization in medical fields in recent years, communication
between researchers with various specializations and creation of interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary
departments had turned into an undeniable necessity. Therefore, communication between educational
or research departments can facilitate the flow of information between researchers; and consequently,
the top ranking departments in this study had more participation in scientific production of IUMS
and getting more scores in annual evaluation by scientometrics department. This network analysis
showed that researchers in various medical fields closely collaborate with each other and are able
to connect with <2 intermediates.
Keywords
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