Mapping the Research Productivity of Three Medical Sciences Journals Published in Saudi Arabia: A Comparative Bibliometric Study

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to compare the progress of research outcomes specifically of three old and new established Saudi medical research journals: Saudi Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences (SJMMS), Journal of Saudi Heart Association (JSHA), and Journal of Infection and Public Health (JIPH) for the period of 2013 to 2017. Materials and Methods: Scientific papers under the titles of original and review articles, short communications, case and short reports were downloaded from the websites of these journals. The data was analyzed according to three parameters: the growth of publication, the types of publication, and the authorship pattern. Results: The findings of the study revealed that 827 articles were contributed by 3808 authors with an average of 4.6 authors per article, and 12.9% articles were published in 64 issues of SJMMS (n=600, 15.7%) , JSHA (n=951, 24.9%), and JIPH (n=2257, 59.2%) during 2013–2017. The majority of articles (n=746, 90.2%) included more than one author, leaving only 81 articles (9.7%) were prepared by single (or solo) authors. The authors have been collaborated with national and international authors for their scholarly work. Conclusions: The comparison of bibliometric indicators of the three medical journals showed the rising tendency of research publications and the high rate of collaborative research output. These journals contributed a massive number of research papers during the period of five years. Collaboration among researchers facilitates sharing knowledge and techniques and brings a mixture of positive scientific thoughts. The unified bylaws for faculty in Saudi universities should give more weight to multi-authored papers