A Bibliometric Study of Scientific Literature of Psychiatry in Scopus

Due to the large proportion of mental health problems and psychiatric disorders, research in the field of mental health is of great significance. The main objective of this study was to investigate the scientific productivity in the field of psychiatry in the Scopus database (2000-2012).
Material and In this study, we tried to examine 27,516 records of articles which were published in Scopus databases during 2000-2012. Then, by using scientometric method, we surveyed authors, active institutes and leading countries in this field and along side, core journals were studied in journal citation report by using impact factor.
The results showed that the United States of America, England and Germany are the top countries in the field of psychiatry. Also, there are 40 core journals in this field which have an impact factor higher than 3. London Kings College with 565 articles, VA Medical Center with a total of 534 articles and Harvard Medical School with 289 articles are on the top of active institutions in the field of psychiatry. In Iran, Tehran University of Medical Sciences with 37 articles, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences with 16 articles and Isfahan University of Medical Sciences with 9 articles were the most active universities in Iran in publishing articles. Among international authors, Biederman with13% of the articles, Birmaher with12% and Vitiello with11% have a considerable role in publishing in this field. In Iran Mohammadi with 9 articles, Akhundzade with 8 articles and Amini and Qanizadeh with 7 articles were active researchers. In comparison with other countries, Iran has a light portion of the research in this field but it has shown a growing trend in publishing in recent years.
The results of this research can be used as evidence for researchers to determine the path ahead in research and as a tool for strategic planning used in the mental health sector.