Background and Purpose: Investigation of scientific output is known as one of the most important indicators of research and knowledge production. With respect to the importance of berberis in traditional and modern medicine, this study aims to investigate the research conducted on berberis medicinal plant in authoritative databases and the contribution of  the medical field during 1993 to 2013.

Materials and Method: This is a descriptive-analytical research in which indexed documents in Web of Science and Scopus were analyzed by analyst softwares of the two databases. Pearson coefficient was calculated to determine the relationship between scientific contribution and citation rate.

Results: 803 and 1278 documents were retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus, respectively. In both databases, “Karimov, A” had the most papers. “Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii” included 26 documents in Web of Science and 44 ones in Scopus, therefore, they were published the most papers on berberis. “China Sciences” university published the most papers in Web of Science and “University of Connecticut America”had the most papers in Scopus. The highest rate of papers published belonged to U.S and the dominant subject in Scopus was pharmacology and in Web of Science the dominant subject was internal medicine. No significant relationship was observed between the number of authors and the citation rate.

Conclusion: The prolific authors, influential journals, active institutions, and leading countries were identified. The findings present a suitable pattern for researchers and policy makers in Iran and abroad to improve the quantity and quality of research in this field.