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Objective: Social networking sites are appropriate tools for sharing and exposing scientific works to increase citations. The objectives of the present study are to investigate the activity of Iranian scholars in the medical sciences in ResearchGate and to explore the effect of each of the four ResearchGate metrics on the RG score. Moreover, the citation metrics of the faculty members in Scopus and the relationship between these metrics and the RG score were explored. Methods: The study population included all SBMU faculty members who have profiles in ResearchGate (N=950). The data were collected through ResearchGate and Scopus in January 2021. The Spearman correlation coefficient was applied to examine the relationship between ResearchGate metrics and Scopus indicators as well as to determine the effect of each ResearchGate metric on the RG score. Results: The findings revealed that the publication sharing metric had the highest correlation (0.918) with the RG score and had the greatest impact on it (p-value Conclusion: Researchers' participation in the ResearchGate social network is effective in increasing citation indicators. Therefore, more activity in the ResearchGate social network may have favorable results in improving universities' ranking., INTRODUCTION Conducting any scientific activity first requires gaining knowledge of previous relevant research and citing those sources. There is often a content link between these activities and the sources cited. [...]

Background: The most recent MERS outbreak has raised questions about prevention and symptoms since there is currently no vaccine to prevent MERS. People can help protect themselves from this illness by taking everyday preventive actions. To do so, it is helpful to get medical information on the Internet about this illness. Regarding the importance of ensuring the provision of accurate online information, the aim of this study was to assess the credibility of health websites about MERS by using HONcode tool. Materials and methods: The term 'MERS' was searched in Google, Yahoo, and Bing and the first three pages reported by each search engine were selected for evaluation. After excluding 26 websites, 64 unique websites were eligible for examination. Subsequently, the trustworthiness of the websites was then evaluated by using the HONcode of conducts quality rating tool. Results: Our findings indicate that most of the retrieved websites were commercial and governmental (37.5%). Furthermore, only 7 out of 64 websites were officially HONcode certified. In general, the health websites regarding MERS were of poor credibility and while searching for MERS information people will encounter websites which include more commercial content rather than educational. Conclusion: The internet is a place to educate individuals on their health condition and possible treatment options. Nevertheless, the internet cannot replace the role of health professionals in patient education. Regarding the poor credibility of MERS related websites, directing patients to reliable sources of online health information is important, mainly because search engine rank does not assure the trustworthiness of websites. Keywords: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, Patient Portals, Health Communication, Patient Education, HONcode, eHealth, Health information, Background: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus, in the same family of viruses that causes the common cold that was first identified [...]

Introduction: The emergency department is amongst the most important parts of the hospital, which has a great impact on the performance of other departments. In this regard, Emergency Department Information System (EDIS) plays a vital role in providing effective and appropriate healthcare services. Material and Methods: To evaluate the user-perceived usability of admission and discharge sections of the Emergency Department Information System of Shohada-e-Tajrish Educational Hospital, the study is carried out utilizing SUS and PSSUQ scales. Research participants include all users in the admission and discharge sections of the emergency department of the Hospital. Results: The mean score of the system usability based on the results of the SUS scale was 49.62±23.23, which is lower than the acceptable level (score above 68). The results generated by the PSSUQ tool revealed that the information quality (4.79), interface quality (4.91), and system usefulness (4.42) of admission and discharge sections of the EDIS do not have appropriate scores and need to be improved in this regard. .The worst usability score was related to system usefulness. There was no statistically significant correlation between the age of participants and usability scores. Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference between the userperceived usability and the education level of participants (p>0.05). Conclusion: The study revealed that users are not satisfied with system usability. In the event that the usability of the system is suboptimal, the user fails to effectively utilize the system, thereby impeding the attainment of the intended ultimate objective for which the system has been designed. Regarding the importance of admission and discharge sections in the EDIS, strides need to be made to improve the usability of the system which is used at the emergency department of Shohada-e-Tajrish educational hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The growing use of online information influences people's healthcare decision making in terms of treatment or consulting a doctor. The readability of a website is a factor that influences the correct understanding of its content. Regarding that there is little information about the readability as well as the credibility of health websites in the field of kidney transplantation, the present study assesses the readability and trustworthiness of websites in this topic. Material and Methods: Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines were used to search for "Kidney Transplantation" and "Renal Transplantation.". Four readability scales were applied to assess the readability of the first 30 results of each search engine. The HONcode toolbar was applied to recognize credible websites. The relationship between HONcode verification and website position on the search results pages was explored. Furthermore, the difference between the readability scores and website position on the search results pages was tested. The readability difference between search result pages was also examined. Results: According to the results, the assessed websites are suitable for students or high school graduates. Furthermore, the association between the average readability of websites and website position on the search results pages was significant (p-value<0.05). A significant association between HONcode-verified sites and website position on the search results pages was also revealed (p-value=0.011). Conclusion: The readability of kidney transplantation websites is far above the recommended level. Therefore, health organizations must consider readability while designing their websites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The ability to use digital resources is important for medical students. In order to use digital resources, they need the capabilities of digital technology utilizing, which is referred to as 'digital literacy. However, how much effectively students can use these facilities is a subject that needs to be addressed. So, the present study intended to investigate the digital literacy level of students of the Allied medical sciences of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was performed at the Faculty of Allied medical sciences of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in academic year of 2016-2017 using a researcher-made questionnaire containing 23 closed questions in four sections. A total of 115 students in three educational grades: bachelor, master and the PhD grade were included in this study. Z-test was used to evaluate the relationship between internet skills and students' academic achievements if any exist. Results: Almost half of the students (51.3%) have not completed any computer courses regarding basic ICT skills. The findings showed that 41.2% of PhD students are aware of digital literacy concept; meanwhile, only 11% of bachelor students and 20.6% of master ones knew the actual meaning of this concept. The use of public search engines was a favorite alternative for finding specialized terminologies at all grades. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between the level of familiarity with the Internet and the students' grade (p [less or equal to] 0.05). Conclusion: Digital literacy training courses can enhance digital literacy skills significantly. Most students agreed with the inclusion of digital literacy courses in their curriculum. Therefore, they should be supported by educators and librarians in order to effectively use the Internet and information technology as well as to overcome the problems of finding and using information to gain academic achievement. Keywords: Digital Literacy; Information Technology utilization; Computer Literacy, Background: Recent advancements in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have changed the learning methodologies for everyone. Due to computers and the Internet, the learning process requires people's ability to access, [...]

Libraries will have satisfactory performance in terms of providing services to users if they firstly identify the information needs of their clients and then, they seek to meet these needs. To accomplish this aim, identifying the information seeking behavior of users seems necessary. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the methods and motives of information seeking by students of allied medical sciences. The population of the study included the postgraduate students of Faculty of Allied Medical Sciences of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences accepted to the university in 2015 to 2016. The results indicated that the main motivations of students for the information seeking is first to update their professional knowledge and then to do research activities. Among the information channels used, formal channels have been given more attention. In rating the difficulties ahead in the searching for information, the lack of or unavailability of resources was identified as the most important factor. Providing more and better information on the electronic resources of the university for the graduate students could lead to the more efficient use of the existing resources and would have much success in achieving the educational and research goals. In addition, librarians need to have detailed and scientific knowledge about the information seeking behaviors of their users so that they can meet the information needs of them through providing the necessary facilities and resources using minimum time and the lowest cost. Keywords: Information Seeking Behaviour, Postgraduate Students, Information Channel, Health science library, Introduction The nature of information cannot be easily described, and different people use information for different purposes and in different ways. Some of them apply information to do their research [...]

Purpose: (i) to assess the quality of health websites on kidney transplant and (ii) to evaluate the accessibility of these websites and their concordance with the existing guidelines. Materials and Methods: The terms "kidney transplantation" and "renal transplantation" were searched in the three most popular search engines Google, Yahoo, and Bing. 58 unique websites were eligible for the analysis . The Websites accessibility was evaluated using the AChecker tool. Kruskal-Wallis test was performed to examine any significant difference between accessibility issues across different domains. The eligible websites were screened for quality based on the HONcode of conducts. Moreover, the daily traffic data of each website was determined by Alexa. The correlation of known accessibility problems with website popularity was examined too. Result: The main reported known problems belonged to "scripts must have functional text," "text equivalents," "accessible forms," and "text links for server-side image map". Although the mean accessibility errors in governmental (10.25 ± 7.274) and organizational (12.31 ± 9.469) websites were less than those in the other domains, the differences were not significant (P = 0.60). Findings showed no significant correlation (P > 0.05) between the extent of known problems (16.50 ± 12.18) and Alexa ranking (253675.07 ± 534690.947). Furthermore, most websites on kidney transplant were not certified by the HONcode. Conclusion: The health websites designers should be aware of accessibility problems, because there is a growing population of potential users with disabilities. This study indicated the need to ensure the compliance of kidney transplant websites with accessibility guidelines such as Section 508. Furthermore, most surveyed websites were of poor quality and unreliable. Therefore, physicians should warn their patients about unqualified online health information and guide them to websites which are more reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a new disease develops, people are looking for information about that disease where the internet is considered as one of the sources of health information. Beside empowering individuals to identify and select valid information, reliable and up-to-date websites should also be introduced for them. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate and identify the high quality websites on Ebola virus and disease. To do this study, the term "Ebola" was searched for in Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines using the Google Chrome browser. Three pages were obtained from the search in these three selected search engines and were examined, with the exclusion of duplicate websites, non-English websites, the results related to news, images, ads, and inaccessible websites; finally, 43 websites out of the 90 retrieved websites were selected for evaluation. The research tools included the HONcode toolbar and an eight-item checklist was developed by the researchers based on the HONcode of conducts. The result showed that out of 43 websites evaluated, only 6 websites (14%) were trustable and the 86% were not approved after evaluation based on the HONcode criteria. Only 37% of evaluated websites have been considered complementarity criterion. Justifiability was the most considered criterion and 95% of evaluated websites had paid to distribute information fairly enough. Online information about Ebola is available on many websites and this information affects people's health decisions and behaviors. Physicians and other health professionals can help patients and other community members to find their needed information on infectious diseases (e.g. on Ebola) from the most reputable and valid international websites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]