The condition of interdisciplinary communication among various Educational and Research Departments of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
نویسندگان
1 Department of Knowledge and Information Sciences, School of Literature and Humanities, Lorestan University, Lorestan
2 Health Information Technology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
3 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
4 Department of Librarianship and Medical Information Sciences, School of Management and Medical Information Sciences and Students Research Committee, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences,
doi
چکیده
BACKGROUND: The study aimed to assess interdisciplinary communication among variousEducational and Research Departments of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS) in clinicalmedical sciences using social network analysis.MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out using scientometrics method andinterdisciplinary communication network analysis. Interdisciplinary network of 1298 articles in medicalsciences published in Journal of Isfahan Medical School was evaluated using macro‑ and micro‑levelcriteria of network analysis. Ravar Matrix, UCINET, and VOSviewer software were used to analyzethe interdisciplinary network of medical sciences articles.RESULTS: Findings showed that “Students Research Committee” and “School of Medicine,” theaffiliations of the medical students in general practice with scores of 272 and 197, “Epidemiology andBiostatistics,” “Community Medicine,” and “Internal Medicine” with 170, 101, and 99, respectively,possessed the first ranking of productivity index in scientific communication. Furthermore, inbetweenness centrality index, “Epidemiology and Biostatistics” (3427.807), “Students ResearchCommittee” (2967.180), and “Community Medicine” (1770.300) have an appropriate position inthe network. Based on the centrality index, “Epidemiology and Biostatistics” (22.412), “StudentsResearch Committee” (22.185) as well as “Community Medicine” and “School of Medicine” (both21.554) acquired the least amount of distance with other nodes in network.CONCLUSION: Given the increased specialization in medical fields in recent years, communicationbetween researchers with various specializations and creation of interdisciplinary or multidisciplinarydepartments had turned into an undeniable necessity. Therefore, communication between educationalor 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 IUMSand getting more scores in annual evaluation by scientometrics department. This network analysisshowed that researchers in various medical fields closely collaborate with each other and are ableto connect with <2 intermediates.
