Evaluating the distribution of research in radiation sciences as published in general medical physics journals

摘要

IntroductionThe aim of this study was to evaluate the distribution and trends of studies in different areas of medical physics science. This assessment can reflect the past and current status of the field, and it can also predict the future of this science.Material and methodIn this study, 4630 articles from 3 ISI journals and 1 PubMed indexed journal from 2010 to 2015 were investigated to find the statistics of medical radiation science field studies.ResultsResults revealed that almost 70% of articles were about radiation oncology physics (37.7%) and medical imaging (31.1%). In radiation oncology field most of the studies were respectively about dosimetry (21.9%), imaging in radiotherapy (20.3%) and IMRT (12.9%) and in medical imaging field, most of the studies were about nuclear medicine (32.3%), CT (29%) and MRI (16.4%). The least number of studies were about radiobiology/radiation protection (1.3%) and non-ionizing topics (3.5%).ConclusionAccording to the results, radiation oncology physics and medical imaging were the most popular issues among medical physicists. This study suggests that more attention should be given to non-ionizing radiation topics, radiobiology, and radiation protection.