Journal of Medical Library and Information Science

Introduction: To evaluate the dental research productivity of the universities in the North East of England (NEE).

Methods: We collected the bibliometric data of the dental publications of the five NEE universities from SCOPUS. Collected data were analysed using the Microsoft Excel 2021 software.

Results: Dentistry was the health science subject area with the lowest volume of research productivity in two-fifth of the NEE universities. The NEE universities contributed <4% of the total dental research publications in the UK. Newcastle University was the NEE university with the highest volume of dental research productivity. The level of inter-institutional dental research collaborations among the NEE universities was very low. The USA-based institutions were the most productive foreign institutions collaborating with NEE universities. The study identified the five most published dental researchers at the NEE universities. Each of the NEE universities had at least 15.8% of its total dental research publications in the British Dental Journal.

Conclusion: The findings obtained in this study gives a reflection of dental research productivity of NEE universities. There is a need to strengthen dental research capacity of universities in the NEE.

Introduction: The present study assessed the frequency of library use, level of utilization of library resources, and staff attitude displayed towards nursing students in Edo State College of Nursing Sciences (EDOCNS).

Methods: The study undertook a cross-sectional design using quantitative research. A structured questionnaire was the instrument for data collection, and copies were administered to 100 respondents sampled from 300 students in the Nursing and Midwifery department. A stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select fifty in The Nursing department and 50 students in the Midwifery department. Percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used in data analysis, and regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis that staff attitude has a significant effect on the level of nursing students’ utilization of library resources at EDOCNS.

Results: The study revealed that most nursing students utilized the library once a week (26%) for reprographic purposes (mean score of 3.1). Generally, nursing students utilized library resources at a low level (Average mean of 2.3), and that library personnel displayed a negative attitude toward nursing students (Average mean of 2.2). The study showed that negative staffattitude has a significant (R²= 0.469, β= 0.13, t = 1.88, p= 0.13) effect on the level of nursing students’ utilization of library resources at EDOCNS.

Conclusion: The study indicated that library staff displayed a negative attitude toward nursing students, which has led to the low utilization of library resources; thus, recommending training for all library staff on service delivery to library users at EDOCNS.

Introduction:  As the significant pandemic of the millennium, COVID-19 attracted research interest worldwide, and many papers have been published on the topic and increasingly shared in different social media. This study aimed to estimate the presence of COVID-19 papers in social media.

Methods: In this altmetric survey, Altmetric Explorer was used for data extraction. A comprehensive unlimited search was done on 9 July 2022 for COVID-19 papers mentioned at least once on social media. All 162,068 related papers as the study population was analyzed in Excel 2016 and SPSS v22.

Results: 151,956 COVID-19 papers (93.76%) were mentioned at least once on social media. Most papers (100,295) were within the altmetric attention score ranging from 1-10. As the top-ranked source, Twitter mentioned 144,073 papers (88.90%), followed by Mendeley, covering 129,328 (79.79%), papers and News Outlet covering 39,445 papers (24.33%). Most Twitter, Facebook, and News users were from the USA and the UK. "MedRexiv" ranked first with mentioning 10,971 papers, followed by the British Medical Journal with 2,122 mentioned papers and the Lancet with 692 mentioned papers. In the top highly-mentioned papers, some central aspects of the disease, such as its prevention, treatment, and vaccination, were considered as main public concerns.

Conclusions: COVID-19 research has been increasingly presented in social media, which is a sign of considering COVID-19 as a primary human concern. Thus, social media platforms have a prominent role in the reach and visibility of research output in COVID-19.

Introduction: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have been placed at the summit of the evidence pyramid in the evidence-based medicine paradigm. Scientometric investigation can provide useful insight into the field's scholarly communications. Therefore, this study is an attempt to scientometric study of the highly cited systematic reviews and meta-analysis articles of cardiac and cardiovascular systems category based on Web of Science.

Methods: The study focused on those highly cited articles that were retrieved from Web of Science between July 20th and July 27th, 2019. After multiple phases of screening the retrieved articles, 150 articles formed the current research population. A number of articles in systematic review and meta-analysis, the publication trend, the status of authors' countries, authors’ affiliation, and the publication sources of the articles were examined.

Results: Meta-analysis articles account for 52% of the research population. The largest share of the highly cited papers were for 2018. The results showed 61.3% of the studies conducted by international cooperation. The largest number of the studies have been conducted by researchers of USA, England, Netherland and Canada. The largest number of the articles published in American College of Cardiology, and European Heart Journal. The majority of the highly cited articles (79.33%) published in Q1 journals.

Conclusion: The publication of the highly cited articles has benefited greatly from international collaboration. Researchers from of the United States, the Netherlands, England and Canada significantly contributed to the articles' production. The highly cited papers have been published in the most prestigious journals.

Introduction: The information-seeking behavior of the elderly, the information needs of this group regarding health, and the problems and barriers to accessing this information are of great importance and play an influential role in the self-management process of the elderly. This study aims to investigate the health information-seeking behavior of the elderly in Golestan Province.

Methods: In this survey study, 239 elderly individuals from Golestan Province were included. The Medlock questionnaire used for data collection. The study participants were selected using a convenience sampling method. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis, including correlation and Poisson regression tests. All analyses were performed using SPSS 26 software at a significance level of 0.05.

Results: The results revealed that the most used and reliable sources by the elderly were “Direct contact with health professionals” (29.29%) and “Television” (19.75%). The highest information searches were in scientific care, nutrition, physical activities, specific disease symptoms and causes, prescribed medications, coping with a disease, side effects of treatment, disease prediction, and treatment methods. A high correlation was found between Trust in Friends/Acquaintances (0.656), Television (0.641), and Radio (0.632) as sources of health information. In contrast, a low correlation was observed between Trust in educational courses and lectures (0.324) and Books/Encyclopedias (0.274) for obtaining health information.

Conclusion: It is necessary to establish a direct communication infrastructure between health professionals and the public through expanding programs such as family physicians and developing evidence-based television programs with a knowledge translation approach.

Introduction: Health literacy includes skills required to make informed personal and social health decisions. Due to the increasing importance of health literacy, it is vital to investigate the quantitative and thematic publication process in this field. This study aims to investigate the publication process and draw a scientific map of articles in health literacy.

Methods: The current research is a descriptive-analytical one. Scientometric techniques were used for anlayzing health literacy publications from 2012 to January 23, 2023 in the PubMed database. RStudio and VOSviewer software were used for data analysis.

Results: In the 12 years under review, 8,242 documents in the field of health literacy have been published. 27,193 authors and 1,588 journals contributed to the publication of these documents. Seven hundred four authors contributed to single-author papers, and 26,489 contributed to multi-author papers. International participation in this area was 11.95%. Wolf MS, Osborne RH, and Paasche-Orlow MK are the most contributing health literacy researchers. America-China registered the most scientific cooperation pairs. The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health has published the most health literacy articles among the journals. The research trend in 2013-2014 was toward teaching and educational principles and methods.

Conclusion: Researchers in the field of health literacy pay special attention to the issue of scientific cooperation. In the reviewed articles, COVID-19 is one of the prominent topics that coincide with the issue of health literacy.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate familiarity of academic staff physicians with EBM and its application in daily practice.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2022 with the participation of academic staff physicians of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Data were collected using CEBM questionnaire and were analyzed with SPSS 20 software, using T-test and Spearman correlation statistical tests.

Results: Out of 156 academic physicians, 97 (62.2%) completed the questionnaire, 62 (63.9%) were male, and 33 (34%) had participated in EBM workshops. Mean score of knowledge and attitude questions were 14.7± 3.9 and 3.8± 0.5 respectively. There was no significant difference between males and females in knowledge and attitudes (P >0.05). Physicians who participated in EBM workshops had higher scores in knowledge (P <0.05) but not in attitude (P= 0.06). Positive and significant correlation between age (r = 0.32, P = 0.001) and teaching experience (r = 0.28, P = 0.005) was observed with knowledge and attitude about EBM. 69.1% of participants used very little or not at all EBM in their daily practice. The most important obstacles were lack of time (49.5%) and specific information (22.7%). More than 65% of physicians tended to use EBM in their daily practice.

Conclusion: The academic staff physicians of Hamadan, Iran had a positive attitude towards evidence-based medicine, but did not have enough information in this regard. Accordingly, its application in daily clinical work was relatively low. Holding EBM workshops is essential to increase awareness about EBM.