Mapping of The Thematic Domains of Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Articles in Medical Sciences of Iran Indexed in Scopus

Systematic review and meta-analysis articles are crucial in evidence-based medicine. The present study aims to map the thematic areas of systematic review and meta-analysis articles in the field of medical sciences of Iran, indexed in Scopus, based on NLM classification. This applied-descriptive research employed qualitative content analysis, which involved indexing and classification. The study focused on 2,237 systematic review and meta-analysis articles in the medical sciences of Iran, all published in Scopus in 2021. Data analysis was conducted using Excel software and descriptive statistical methods. The QU category, including Biochemistry, Cell Biology, and Genetics, has the most articles with 527. Coming in second is the QV category (Pharmacology) with 493 articles, followed by the WC category (Communicable Diseases) with 390 articles. Additionally, the QU category boasts the most significant number of publication sources, with 318 journals. The QV category comes in second with 284 journals, while WC ranks third with 263 journals. The results show that most systematic review and meta-analysis articles and their sources fall under the QU category. More investigations are needed to understand the growth trend of articles in these areas compared to others.