International Journal of Sport Studies. Vol., 2 ((3), 130-135, 2012
Available online at http://www.ijssjournal.com
ISSN 2251-7502 ©2012
A Quantities’ and Content Analysis of Iranian Sport Sciences Scientific Outputs in Web
of Science
Morteza Rezaee Soufi1. Ebrahim Ezzati2. Mehrali.HemmatinezhadTouli3
1. Department of Physical Education, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
2. Department of Foreign Languages, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
3. Associate professor of the University of Guilan
Corresponding author: Morteza Rezaee Soufi, E-mail:
mail: [email protected]
ABSTRACT: Using bibliographic records indexed in Web of Science, this paper tries to give a complete view
of scientific productions of Iran in sport science during 1990-2009.
1990
Specifically, the purpose of this study is to determine researchers’ cooperation level with national and
international universities, authorship
ship patterns of documents,
documents and content analysis of articles.
Findings revealed that just 128 were indexed by Iranian researchers during these years (1990-2009
2009). Authorship
analysis uncovered that there were 484 authors contributing in these 128 articles, out of whom there were 344
Iranian ones and 140 foreigners.
ost researches revolved around the physiology of sport and the systems of ene
energy.
It is worth mentioning that most
Subsequently, motion behavior as well as management and planning in sport sciences held the next focus of
researchers. To recapitulate, sports such as soccer, wrestling and mountain-climbing attracted
ted the attention of
researchers more than the other ones. In authorship patterns of papers, 4-authored, 3-authored
ed and 2-authored
articles were the most followed pattern
patterns among the articles. To put it into effect, a chi-square
square was employed to
disclose that cooperation factor had a considerable sway on the average number of citations.
Keywords: sport sciences, scientific outputs,
outputs authorship pattern, scientific cooperation, Iran, web
eb of science.
INTRODUCTION
With research strategies that have been adopted in
recent years, science production in Iran has
improved significantly. So that according to latest
data from WoS, documents from Iran has been
registered in the past two decades has grown
significantly in a row (Figure 1). But what is
certain is that the quantitative growth alone is not
indicative of the growth and it is necessary to have
a deeper review of content and effectiveness of
scientific productions.
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
0
Fig. 1 Scientific growth rate of in Iran from 1990 to 2011
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Intl. J. Sport Std. Vol., 2 (3), 130-135, 2012
He resulted that there is a positive relationship
between the writers who write a lot and who
cooperate a lot. He also found that the cooperation
level of writers is low in literature (about 1.2), and
the writers tend to do research individually.
It is believed that the scientific collaboration brings
on more research efficiencies (Sooryammorthy,
2009). Jonkers (2009) came to the conclusion that
"international cooperation normally gets more
citations than the national ones." Melo et al (2006)
found the same result.
(Manuelraj et al., 2008) identified the Indian bestcompiling researchers in Health in the years 20002007 and studied on the rate of cooperation and the
influence of writing patterns and efficiency on the
Health Caring researchers in India. Mukherjee
(2008) analyzed the writing patterns of four
important authors in eight years (2000-2007). (Ma
et al., 2005) also studied on Chinese scientific
outputs in the field of molecular biology and
analyzed the writing pattern of the writers. They
found that only 1.58 percent of scientific outputs
have been done individually. Sooryamoorthy
(2009) also stated that the pace of scientific
collaboration was stable in South Africa.
In a mosre related study, (Hemmatinejad et al.,
2008) has studied on the printed papers written in
the fields of sport sciences in Iran and showed to
what extend the universities played an important
role in writing an essay. This study showed that
university of Tehran has produced the most
scientific outputs; university of Guilan, Tarbiat
Moalem, and Tarbiat Modarres ranked second to
fourth.
Yi et al (2011) evaluated research trends of
eutrophication papers published between 1991 and
2010 in any journal of all the subject categories of
the SCI. The published output analysis showed that
eutrophication research steadily increased over the
past 20 years and the annual publication output in
2008, 2009, 2010 were about four times that of
1991. The whole paper published by China ranked
at 3rd, but these papers’ IF were lower than the
average of the world. ‘‘Water Framework
Directive’’ and ‘‘Life Cycle Assessment’’ were
two of the most frequently used author keywords in
the period between 1999 and 2010 whilst they did
not appear before 1998.
Karpagam (2011) analyzed the growth pattern of
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology literature in
India during 1990–2009 (20 years). The Scopus
international multidisciplinary bibliographical
database has been used to identify the Indian
contributions on the field of nanoscience and
nanotechnology. Results indicated that out of 7, 59,
704 publications, 54.63% of contribution are from
USA, China, Japan and Germany. 20.29% of
contributions are from USA alone and ranks top in
the position. It is followed by China 15.87%; Japan
10.39% and Germany 8.07%. Out of the top 10
The purpose of this study is to investigate the
scientific outputs of Sport Sciences in Iran from the
aspect of researchers` cooperation at the national
and international levels, and to analyze th content
of articles. So it is necessary to investigate studies
published at the international level in the fields of
sport sciences and to find out to which branch and
sub-branch they have paid more attention.
Undoubtedly, it is through a comprehensive and
applicable research that the quality of cooperation
in sport sciences meliorates. In short, this study is
about to answer the following questions:
1. To what fields do the scientific outputs of
Iran in the sport sciences area belong?
2. What are the common topics on which the
scientific outputs of Iran in the sport
sciences have been done?
3. In what sport courses have the scientific
outputs of Iran in the sport sciences been
done?
4. Based on authorship patterns, how are the
scientific outputs of Iran in the sport
sciences from the viewpoint of dispersion?
5. Which writing patterns have got more
citations?
Literature Review:
Having a deeper look at the literature, it was found
that researchers have conducted a lot of studies on
'scientific outputs and the level of cooperation' to
some of which we are going to concern.
In researching topics of M.S. theses in nursing,
(Heravi et al., 2006) claimed that %9.83 of theses
was about the professional operation of nurses,
%4.6 about training sanitation and health services,
%3.84 about students training, and %3.75 focused
on pain.
(Danesh et al., 2007) have studied on the rate of
researchers` group working in the medical Sciences
University of Isfahan from 2001 to 2006 and have
measured their cooperation level in doing research.
This study enlightened that the number of
researches that were done jointly in 2006 was more
than before.
Velaayati (2008) has studied on the rate of
scientific collaboration between Iran and
neighborhood countries from 1990 to 2007. The
results show that Iran has cooperated more with
Russia, Turkey, and Pakistan to write an essay
most of which were on physics, biology, and
chemistry. It has also confirmed that the rate of
scientific collaboration was ascending from 1990 to
2007. Among universities and higher education
centers, Shahid Beheshti, Saari, and Tabriz
universities had more cooperation level with
neighborhood countries.
Harande (2001) has paid more attention on the
relationship between the number of researchers`
outputs and the number of cooperation in literature.
131
Intl. J. Sport Std. Vol., 2 (3), 130-135,, 2012
countries India holds 7th rank with its contribution
of 3.00% in the field of nanoscience and
nanotechnology during the period 1990–2009.
1990
In a recent research, ( Liu et al., 2012) provided a
supplement evaluation on the global research
trends in earthquake studies, by summarizing the
patterns of authorship, journal and subject
categories,
geographic
and
institutional
distributions, and temporal evolutions of keyword
frequencies. The most commonly used keywords
appeared in the articles were evolution, California,
deformation,
model,
inversion,
seismicity,
tectonics, crustal
tal structure, fault, zone, lithosphere,
and attenuation.
Totally, studies on records revealed that
scientometrics studies are being paid attention in
different fields by many researchers who use the
scientometrics indicators to find out the current
situation
ion of scientific outputs. However, studies
showed that no research has ever been done on the
RESULTS
content analysis of Iranian papers in the
international indices of I.S.R. in the field of sport
sciences.
This study is done by bibliometrics method.
Research society was formed by scientific outputs
of Iran in the field of sport sciences indicated in
Web of Science from 1990 to 2009. To identify the
different authorship,, we printed each writer`s
bibliography and then worked on them with the
help
lp of experts. Finally, the data were analyzed by
Excel software to provide scientific answers tor the
research questions.
According to WoS database from 1990-2009,
72056
56 documents of which only 128 (%0.1776) are
Witten in the field of sport sciences belonged to
Iranian researchers. Majority of papers in the field
of sport sciences were written in English and only
one work was printed in Italian. Of 484 authors,
344 persons
ons were Iranian and 140 persons were
foreigners. Among Iranians, 295 (% 85.75) were
men and 49 (% 14.25) were women. In other
words, men`s participation
icipation is more than women`s.
Paying more attention to a scientific field shows its
importance. Undoubtedly, research
esearch subjects in
different branches on sport sciences ought to be
selected in a way to meet the requirements of the
society and people. These outputs should solve the
sport sciences problems in different aspects of
social, economic, cultural, and politi
political. Studies
have revealed that among other branches,
physiology is paid the most attention. In other
words, %53.9 of scientific outputs in the field of
sport sciences are written from the viewpoint of
physiology: %42.1 of outputs is about sport
pathology, %2.4 about motion behavior, and finally
%1.66 about sport management. Among sports,
football, wrestling, and climbing
imbing were paid more
attention (Figure 2).
METHODOLOGY
60 53.9
42.1
50
40
30
20
2.4 1.6
10
0
Fig. 2: Distribution of researches in different branches of sport sciences
Content analysis
In this part, we try to have a deeper look at the
content analysis and to study the contents of three
top fields. Studies revealed that in physiology,
orderly, %23.39 of contents was about energy
systems, %13.43 about the effect of muscular
exercises,, %7.46 about physical status of body.
And finally, %49.26 was about other contents.
Among sports, football,, wrestling, marathon,
tennis, climbing, and gait were paid the most
attention.
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Intl. J. Sport Std. Vol., 2 (3), 130-135, 2012
Table 1: Content analysis of scientific productions in sport sciences
Contents
Field
Third
second
first
5 cases
9 cases
15 cases
Sport physiology
Effect of exercises on
Effect of exercises on
Aerobic system 12
blood
body
cases
Anaerobic 3 cases
4 cases
cases
13 cases
Biomechanics
Lower part of body
Biomechanical status
Gait and symmetry
movements
of body and lumbars
2 cases
4 cases
7 cases
Sport pathology
Talus
Knee area
Lumbars area
In biomechanics, %59.9 of papers was about gait
symmetry, %22.72 about body movements and
lumbars, and %18.19vwas about different status of
movement of lower part of body.in sport pathology,
orderly, lumbars areas injuries (%35) and ligament
areas (%9.52), and %55 of injuries of lower part of
body were totally studied.
Output dispersion based on authorship patterns
The number of authors of papers shows the type of
authorship patterns used by researchers (Table 2).
As the table shows, four-author writing patterns
ranked first with 37 papers (about %28.9). Threeauthor patterns ranked second with 26 papers, and
two-author pattern ranked third with 20 papers. Of
128 papers, only 14 (%10.94) were written
individually. Totally, 89.06 percent of scientific
outputs in the field of sport sciences have been
written in cooperation (more than one author).
Studies also revealed that 51 papers have been
written in cooperation with foreigners among
which Canadians with 16 and English with 11
papers were on top. Australia and the U.S. ranked
third with four joint papers.
Studies on the number of references used in
scientific outputs said that there are totally 3870
references. 30 references were normally used in
each essay. Of 3870 references, 3663 references
belong to joint papers (%31.13) and only 207
references belong to mono-author papers (14.87).
Table 2: Authorship pattern of scientific productions in sport sciences
ranking
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Number of
authors
four
three
two
One
five
Six
seven
Ten
eight
nineteen
Total
Number of
papers
37
26
20
14
14
7
6
2
1
1
128
percent
28.90
20.31
15.63
10.94
10.94
5.46
4.69
1.57
0.78
0.78
100
Authorship patterns of highly cited papers
This study shows that the ten papers which got the
most citations were written jointly and had more
than one author. Of these ten papers, 9 were written
internationally. The papers which got the most
citations were referenced for more than 87 times
and were written by Canadian researchers in the
fields of biomechanics. The second place dedicated
to an essay with more than 58 references by
Canadians, too. Finally, two papers- one by an
Iranian and the other by English- with 24
references ranked third.
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Intl. J. Sport Std. Vol., 2 (3), 130-135, 2012
Table 3: Highly cited papers in sport sciences
Affiliation of
Iranian
author
No. of
author
s
Nationality
of foreign
co-authors
No. of
citatio
ns
Publica
tion
year
Branch
Title
Tarbiat
moalem
Tarbiat
moalem
University
of Social
Welfare and
Rehabilitati
on Sciences
Isfahan
university
3
Canada
87
2000
biomechanics
2
Canada
85
1996
biomechanics
2
---------
24
2002
Sport
pathology
Symmetry and limb dominance in
able-bodied gait: a review
Functional gait asymmetry in ablebodied subjects
Relationship between mechanical
factors and incidence of low back
pain
4
England
24
2003
Sport
physiology
Tarbiat
moalem
6
Canada
22
2001
biomechanics
Tarbiat
moalem
3
Canada
21
2001
biomechanics
Medical
sciences of
Iran
Medical
sciences of
Iran
Medical
sciences of
Iran
4
France
20
2004
Sport
pathology
5
America
19
1994
Sport
physiology
3
England
18
2004
Sport
pathology
2
England
16
2003
Sport
physiology
Physical
education
college
Muscle fatigue induced by exercise
simulating the work rate of
competitive soccer
Functional roles of ankle and hip
sagittal muscle moments in ablebodied gait
Muscle power compensatory
mechanisms in below-knee amputee
gait
Shoulder arthroplasty for late
squealed of proximal humeral
fractures
Roles of intracellular and
extracellular carbonic-anhydrase in
alveolar-capillary CO2 equilibration
The contribution of the medial
retinaculum and quadriceps muscles
to patellar lateral stability - an invitro study
The effects of graded resistance
exercise
DISCUSSION
The terms Bibliometrics, Scientometrics, and
Informetrics refer to component fields related to the
study of the dynamics of disciplines as reflected in
the production of their literature (Hood et al.,
2001). In this study, we kept a deep look at
scientific production of Iranian Sport Science
researchers indexed in WOS. The results indicated
that only 128 WoS documents were registered by
Iranian researchers in sport sciences. Although Iran
is i n a very good condition in terms of scientific
growth, but competed with other disciplines,
scientific output of sport sciences is not in a good
condition and ranks 125th among other disciplines.
Findings revealed that more than half of outputs
belong to sport physiology. More nalysis showed
because physiology has something in common with
medical sciences, medical sciences researchers
contributed to the situation significantly.
In sport physiology, the sub-branch of energy
systems ranks first. The effect of muscular
exercises, the effect of exercises on blood, and
physiological status of body rank lower. What is
important is that football, wrestling, marathon,
tennis, volleyball, climbing, and gait are among
sports on which researchers paid more attention.
Biomechanics and sport pathology rank after
physiology. Most researches in these fields are
about the lower part of the body. Unlike sport
management which has a long history in Iran, these
two branches are new and on their first steps in our
country; so, ranking in the second place after
physiology is itself kind of victory.
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