Electronic Physician (ISSN: 2008-5842) http://www.ephysician.ir December 2015, Volume: 7, Issue: 8, Pages: 1597-1601, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.19082/1597 Corresponding author: Azam Bazrafshan, Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. Tel: +98.3432263855, Fax: +98.3432263857, Email: Bazrafshan.a.83@gmail.com Received: September 20, 2015, Accepted: November 21, 2015 , Published: December 2015 iThenticate screening: November 03, 2015, English editing: November 30, 2015, Quality control: December 01, 2015 © 2015 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. Page 1597 Trends in Global Assisted Reproductive Technologies Research: a Scientometrics study Maryam Okhovati 1 , Morteza Zare 2 , Fatemeh Zare 3 , Maliheh Sadat Bazrafshan 4 , Azam Bazrafshan 5 1 Ph.D. of Library and Information Science, Assistant Professor, Physiology Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 2 M.Sc. of Epidemiology, Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 3 Student of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran 4 M.Sc. of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 5 M.Sc. of Medical Library and Information Science, Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Type of article: Original Abstract Introduction: This study illustrated the global contribution to assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) research in MEDLINE database from 1998 to 2014. Methods: In March 2015, the MEDLINE database was searched for research publications indexed under ‘reproductive techniques, assisted’ (including the following MeSH headings: in vitro fertilization [IVF]; intracytoplasmic sperm injections; cryopreservation; and ovulation induction), with the following expressions in the fields of title or abstract: intrauterine insemination; sperm donation; embryo/egg donation and surrogate mothers. The number of publications in MEDLINE database was recorded for each individual year, 1998–2014, and for each country. The following countries were arbitrarily selected for data retrieval: United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan (G7 countries), Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC countries), Egypt, Turkey, Israel and Iran. Results: The absolute number of publications for each country from 1998 to 2014 ranged from 75 to 16453, with a median of 2024. The top five countries were the US (16453 publications), the UK (5427 publications), Japan (4805), China (4660) and France (3795). ART (20277), cryopreservation (11623) and IVF (11209) were the most researched areas. Conclusion: Global research on ARTs were geographically distributed and highly concentrated among the world’s richest countries. Cryopreservation and IVF were the most productive research domains among ARTs. Keywords: infertility, assisted reproductive technologies, bibliometrics 1. Introduction Infertility is an important health problem, with an estimated prevalence of 48.5 million couples worldwide (1). Although infertility is mostly common in aging populations and in urban areas where women have their first child at an older age, the burden of infertility and its social consequences are predominantly found in developing and transitional countries (2). In response to the increasing rates of infertility, rapid progress in reproductive medicine and research has been largely attributed to significant developments and novel technologies in the treatment and care of infertile couples in the world (3). In this context, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have been widely recommended as successful and common treatments in most countries. ARTs include a wide range of treatments or procedures involving in vitro handling of human oocytes, sperms or embryos for establishing a pregnancy(4). In vitro fertilization (IVF) and its extended technologies, such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), pre-