Presence of the Iranian Library and the Information Science Departments in Research Gate

Current research intends to survey on the participation of the Iranian Library and the Information Science departments in Research Gate as academic social networks. In this article, activities of Iranian faculty members of the Library and the Information Science departments, using special indicators of Research Gate — RG Score, Impact Points, Publications, Citations and Reads — were analysed. Findings indicated that 36 Iranian faculty members of the Library and the Information Science departments from 14 universities and institutions are active in Research Gate. Moreover the findings revealed that the Library and the Information Science Department of Kharazmi University, Islamic Azad University, Iran Medical Sciences University, Islamic World Science Citation Center and Tehran University were top Iranian active LIS departments in Research Gate based on RG Score and Impact Points indicators. Per total, 654 documents were shared in Research Gate by Iranian faculty members of the Library and the Information Science departments in Research Gate and articles, conference papers and books had the most representation in this section. Iranian faculty members H. Jamali and A. R. Noruzi have the best performance in Research Gate based on indicators such as Publications, Citations and Reads. . It should be noted that in the new era of research and education, science social networking websites such as Academia, Research Gate, and Mendeley have essential role in the development of education and research. Millions users around the world use these networks and easily can access their needed information. They are not limited to space of libraries or search engines and their information seeking channels have been changed. So scholars should adapt themselves with new Information context. Interaction of Humanity Sciences scholars with the web setting to do research or to communicate with other researchers can lead to emergence of new ideas. Presence of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences researchers in the scientific social network adds to the visibility of their publications. Finally, it is suggested to study on the presence of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences scholars in Google Scholar, Academia and Mendeley.

Keywords:

Academic social networks , Research Gate , Iranian faculty members , Library and Information Science , Altmetrics