How to Improve Webometric Ranks of Iranian Medical Universities

Document Type : Review Article

Author

PhD Student of Health Information Management, Medical Education Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan and School of Management and Medical Information Science, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Background: The websites of universities by introducing the missions, faculties, departments, courses, educational levels, research and educational facilities, faculty members, students and alumni to the World Wide Web are of great importance. Nowadays webometric ranking of universities is as important as the academic ranking of universities. Webometric ranking of universities reflects the overall web performance of the universities. Analyzing the researches on Iranian academic websites shows many deficiencies in the websites of the Iranian medical universities. These problems are the main causes of low webometric ranks of Iranian medical universities in the "Ranking Web of World Universities". The current study reviews the previous studies on the academic websites of Iran and other countries and suggests several ideas for improving the websites of Iranian medical universities focusing on the structure and content according to the webometric indicators of "Ranking Web of World Universities". The suggested ideas would improve Iranian medical universities ranks in the international level and also affect the major national policies of information management.     

Keywords

References

  1. Academic Ranking of World Universities. [cited 2010 Dec 17]. Available from: URL:
  2. http://www.arwu.org
  3. Aminpour F, Kabiri P, Boroumand MA, Kesht-kar AA, Hejazi SS. Iranian Medical Universities in SCIE: evaluation of address variation. Scien-tometrics 2010; 85(1): 53-63.
  4. Sabouri AA, Poursasan N. Science Production in 2004. Rahyaft 2005; 34:60-65.
  5. Aminpour F, Kabiri P. Science Production in Iran: the scenario of Iranian medical journals. Journal of research in Medical Sciences 2009; 14(5): 313-22.
  6. Osareh F, Marefat R. The Growth of Scientific Productivity of Iranian Researchers in MED-LINE. Rahyaft 2005; 35: 39-44.
  7. Aminpour F, Kabiri P, Heydari M. Academic Contribution to the Scientific Productivity: a case study. Journal of research in Medical Sci-ences 2009; 14(6): 393-5.
  8. Aminpour, F. Research performance of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 1385 (April 2006- March 2007). Journal of research in Med-ical Sciences 2007; 12(6): 308-314.
  9. Almind TC, Ingwersen P. Informetric analyses on the World Wide Web: methodological ap-proaches to Webometrics. Journal of Documen-tation 1997; 53(4): 404-26.
  10. Björneborn, L. & Ingwersen, P. Perspectives of webometrics. Scientometrics 2001; 50(1): 65-82.
  11. Aguillo IF, Granadino B, Ortega JL, et al. Scien-tific research activity and communication measured with cybermetrics indicators. JASIST 2006; 57(10): 1296-302.
  12. Ranking Web of World Universities. [2010 cited Dec 17]. Available from: URL:
  13. http://www.webometrics.info
  14. Methodology of Ranking Web of World Univer-sities. Available from: URL:
  15. http://www.webometrics.info/methodology.html
  16. Ingwersen P. The Calculation of Web Impact Factors. Journal of Documentation 1998; 54(1): 236-43.
  17. Smith A.G. A tale of two web spaces: comparing sites using web impact factors. Journal of Doc-umentation 1999; 55(5): 577-592.
  18. Smith A.G, Thelwall M. Web Impact Factors for Australasian universities. Scientometrics 2002; 54(3): 363-80.
  19. Agarin O, Nwagwu W. E. Links and web impact analyses of Nigerian Universities. Proceedings of the International Conference on bridging the dig-ital divide in scholary communication in the south: threats and opportunities; 2006 Septem-ber 6-8; Netherlands.
  20. Noruzi, A. Web Presence and Impact Factors for Middle-Eastern Countries. Online 2006; 30(2): 22-8.
  21. Aminpour F, Otroj Z. Webometric Ranking of Top Iranian Medical Universities. Health Infor-mation Management 2010; 7(1): 94-102.
  22. Aminpour F, Kabiri P, Otroj Z, Keshtkar AA. Webometric Analysis of Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences. Scientometrics 2009; 80(1): 253-64.
  23. Aminpour F, Kabiri P. Webometric Study on Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences. Pro-ceedings of the 11th International Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics(ISSI); 2007 June 25-27; Madrid, Spain.
  24. Thelwall, M. A comparison of sources of links for academic Web Impact Factor calculations. Journal of Documentation 2002; 58(1): 60-72.
  25. Mukhopadhyay, P. Measuring Web Impact Fac-tors: A webometric study based on the analysis of hyperlinks. Proceedings of the National Semi-nar on Information Support for Rural Develop-ment; 2004 December; India.
  26. Noruzi A. The Web Impact Factor: A Survey of Some Iranian University Web Sites. Studies in Education and Psychology 2004; 5(2): 105-19.
  27. Mesgarpour B, Vasei M, Kabiri P, Alavi M, Aminpour F, Kamalian M, et al. The Compari-son of National, Regional and International Webometric Ranks of Iranian Universities and Research Centers. Hakim Research Journal 2009; 12(3): 18-29.
  28. Elgohary A. Arab Universities on the Web: A webometric study. The Electronic Library 2008; 26(3): 374-86.
  29. Brower SM. Academic health sciences library Website navigation: an analysis of forty-one Websites and their navigation tools. J Med Libr Assoc 2004; 92(4): 412–20.
  30. Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. [cited Dec 17, 2010]. Available from: URL: http://dublincore.org
  31. Thelwall M. The Top 100 linked-to pages on UK university web sites: high inlink counts are not usually associated with quality scholarly con-tent. Journal of Information Science 2002; 28(6): 483-91.
  32. Kousha K, Horri A. The relationship between scholarly publishing and the counts of academic inlinks to Iranian university web sites: exploring academic link creation motivations. Journal of Information Management and Scientometrics 2004; 1(2): 13-22.
  33. Aguillo IF, Granadino B, Ortega JL, Prieto JA. Scientific Research Activity and Communica-tion Measured With Cybermetrics Indicators. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 2006; 57(10): 1296–302.
  34. Thelwall M. A research and institutional size-based model for national university web site in-terlinking. Journal of Documentation 2002; 58(2): 683-94.
  35. Jalal SK, Biswas SC, Mukhopadhyay P. Web impact factor and link analysis of selected Indi-an universities. Annals of Library and Infor-mation Studies 2010; 57: 109-21.
Journal of Isfahan Medical School
Volume 29, Issue 127 - Serial Number 127
January and February 2011
Pages 115-125

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 14 March 2011
  • Revise Date: 01 November 2024
  • Accept Date: 06 April 2022

Share

How to cite

Statistics