The Identification and Description of Patterns and Identity of Science and Researches in Sport Management Papers (2008-2012)

The aim of this study was to identify and describe the patterns and to determine the identity of sport management science and researches with an emphasis on science-research papers in Iran which was conducted by citation analysis and content analysis based on a full-scale view from all dimensions on positivism، critical and realism paradigms. Research method was descriptive-analytic and SPSS & EXCEL software was used. Research sample consisted of 153 papers from four sport science-research journals. First، this paper determined the most share of science-research papers in sport management among other disciplines. Then، this paper studied the theories implemented in papers as one of those determinant criteria for trans-disciplinary science and finally surveyed co-citation، citation and the type of citations. The results showed that the study process of this science in sport management was different with regard to the intervention of other fields of study. In other words، the majority of citation was pertained to management; in fact، the co-citation of sport management was 60% and 40% was pertained to other fields. The lowest citation of management was pertained to history (0. 07%)، theology (0. 05%) and linguistics (0. 05%) while it did not have any citations to art and agriculture. Another result determined the identity of sport management as an interdisciplinary science and it seems that sport management has the necessary potential for entering trans-disciplinary science، but conducted researches on sport management are in trans-disciplinary domain. As a result، the growing movement of sport management to trans-disciplinary science and research based on epistemology and its complexity levels can create a coherent framework for this science.