Move Analysis of Iranian Medical Research Articles in English

This study investigates and compares major moves employed within randomly selected English medical research articles from Iranian ISI journals with those from Non-ISI ones. The main aim was to see if there existed any dissimilarities that might have prevented the publication of some articles in the former. To this effect, 36 online articles from each group chosen on the basis of publication frequency, open access and reputation were analyzed by means of Fryer’s moves analysis framework. Findings revealed significant similarities in the frequency of major moves employed by both the ISI and the Non- ISI groups across all sections. However, the most striking difference between them lay in Move11 (State the Limitation). To be exact, out of the 36 articles, 72% researchers in Type 1(ISI journals) had described the limitations of their studies while only 36 % of the authors in articles of Type 2(Non-ISI journals) had done so. On the other hand, the most striking similarities were seen in Move1 (Present Background Knowledge) and Move 12 (Conclusion) which were employed by all the articles in both Types of journals. In addition, two new moves named, Introduce Methods (M3) in the Introduction Section and Sample Selection (M6) in the Method Section were identified during analysis. However, the use of M3 was found to be insignificant while M6 was used by more than half of the articles in both groups. Overall, it was concluded that not all articles in both groups had adhered to the major moves specified in the study framework. This phenomenon signifies the existence of other underlying criteria, besides the application of these major moves, in choosing articles to be published in Iranian ISI medical journals. The findings contribute to genre research and provide input for further analysis in this context.