Some Effective Factors on the Webometric Status of Selected Universities of Medical Sciences: Lessons Learned from Iran

BACKGROUND: Web is considered an important tool for formal and informal communication and cooperation among members of the community including researchers. Universities’ websites played a significant role in the development of social structure through the creation of cyberspace. We aimed to evaluate the growth and Webometrics rankings of the country’s medical universities web sites base on interventional approach. METHODS: This interventional study assessed Iranian universities of medical sciences’ websites from the periods of Jan 2015, Jul 2015 and Jan 2016. Medical universities websites were ranked based on four Webometrics indicators; PRESENCE, VISIBILITY, OPENNESS, and EXCELLENCE. To enhance the ranking of websites, 4 strategies were introduced in 3 seminars conducted from Jan to Jul 2015. Information needed from these 30 medical universities were obtained from Webometrics Ranking of World Universities based on 4 indicators and were collected in 2 steps (before and after introduction of strategies) RESULTS: About 21% to 70% of the country’s medical universities have increased ranking after the interventions while 9% to 30% obtained a downward trend in their rankings, Tehran University of Medical Sciences obtained the highest rank followed by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and the third rank was obtained by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. CONCLUSION: The presence of websites play a vital role in the academic community. Doubtlessly, the idea of designing and launching a website without any knowledge of the principles and standards would be problematic and impossible.