A Critical Study of Persian Equivalents of Technical Terms and Concepts in Scientometrics

Researchers in the field of scientometrics, as well as scholars of other disciplines, inevitably have to use Persian terms when they are writing in Persian. Since the equivalents are often sporadically invented and chosen, the result would be many- for- one. The purpose of this study was to investigate Persian equivalents in the field of scientometrics.

This descriptive study was carried out, using quantitative content analysis method.

According to the findings, at least one out of almost every six English technical terms in scientometrics has more than one equivalent. Also, in equivalent- finding, the rule of one-to-one matching is not met. Also synonymy in equivalents is frequently observed. The reasons are as follows: the lack of attention to the number of lexical components of the term, using ill-formed structures, using phrasal groups, paying no attention to the lexical category of the components of the technical terms, choosing long terms, using no affixation, lack of attention to the context and genre and neglecting differences and semantic delicacies of words

According to the findings, the number of Persian technical terms in scientometrics is increasing, and as a result, the phenomena of synonymy and polysemy are increasing. By using linguistic and non-linguistic strategies, wordformation should be carried out in accordance with Persian rules.