A Survey on the inconsistencies of writing affiliations of the organizations and research centers and its influence on the recall of retrievals in Thomson Reuters

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify the inconsistencies of recording the titles of institutes and research center affiliated with the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (MSRT) and its consequences on the recall of retrievals in Thomson Reuters. Methodology: This was an applied study conducted through a survey method. The population of this study consisted of all indexed documents by Iranian researchers of institutes and research centers affiliated with the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in Thomson Reuters during 2000-2016. Totally, 403 variant formats for 25 studied organizations were investigated. Findings: Results showed that an average amount of 16 writing variants has induced for each institute or research center title. Acronyms, misspelling, abbreviations, syntactic permutation, space variations, title changing of the organizations and not following the same pattern in recording were the most important reasons for inconsistencies. Besides, except two cases, all institutes and research centers variant formats of affiliations had negative impact on the recall. Conclusions: Regarding the inconsistencies and lack of observed unity in recording affiliations and the negative impact on retrieving the titles of institutes and research centers, their ranking in international ranking system and so on, it is essential to take some efforts in order to unify affiliation. In this regard, defining standard affiliation by policy makers of each organization and obligating the researchers to use defined affiliation are the most important suggested solutions.