The structure of Iranian chemistry research, 1990–2006: An author cocitation analysis

  • Authors:

  • Farideh Osareh;Katherine W. McCain

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Education and Psychology, Department of Library and Information Sciences, Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz-Iran;College of Information Science and Technology, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

  • Venue:
  • Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

To study the structure of Iranian chemistry research, weidentified 43 Iranian and international chemists who were highlycited in 7,682 Iranian chemistry publications (defined as anarticle with at least one Iranian author address) indexed inScience Citation Index (SciSearch) between 1990 and 2006,inclusive. We collected cocitation data for these authors from theentire SciSearch file (Dialog, File 34) over the time period. Aprincipal components analysis identified seven interrelated factorsaccounting for 78% of the variance in the cocitation matrix.Iranian and international authors tended to load on separatefactors. Three factorssynthesis of carbonyl compounds, solvent-freesynthesis of organic compounds and oxidation of organiccompoundshad an inter-correlation of | 0.3 | or higher. Physicalorganic chemistry and ionophores (a mixed factor of Iranian andinternational authors) connected at a lower value, while crownethers and analytical chemistry were essentially uncorrelated. ThePFNet structure maintained the topical factor groupings and Iranianand international authors tended to appear in separate subnetworks.Geographic and institutional influences, apparently relating inpart to institutional affiliation and in part to restrictedresearch topics, appear to underlie the primary structural featuresof Iranian chemistry in this time period. © 2008 WileyPeriodicals, Inc.