Mapping Global Knowledge Domain, Research in Information Retrieval in Medical Sciences: A Scientometric and Evaluative Study

Abstract

\n Objective: The main goal of this paper is to visualize and draw the intellectual and cognitive structures of information retrieval (IR) in the medical sciences through the use of Science Mapping. Methods: This Scientometrics research has been undertaking using Mapping Knowledge Domain (MKD) methods and drawing scientific maps to analyze scientific products and show their trends. In this study, we recruited all documents indexed in the Web of Science database (WOS), with the topic of storing and retrieval of information in medical sciences. To analyze the results, 3 software SciMAT-v1.1.04, VOSviewer-v1.6.14, CitNetExplorer_v1.0.0 were used. Results: Our results show that most scientific productions in this field fall into two categories: 1. Effective methods of organizing information and 2. Application and operation of IR system in the process of intelligent questioning and answering, and analyzing information behaviors of physicians and health professionals . The results showed that the similarity index increased over time from 0.43 to 0.71. Analysis of the findings shows that Similarity measures, Expert systems, Concepts, Experience, Answers, and Multi-model IR clusters are considered as mature and completely centralized clusters in the first quarter of the strategic chart. Conclusions: The effectiveness of scientific documents based on answering clinical questions and focusing on health professionals information behaviors has increased compared to search methods and tools.