Analyzing Scientific Collaboration among Iranian Medical Researchers Using Social Network Indicators

This research attempts to analyze scientific collaboration among Iranian medical researchers based on social network indicators.

This is an applied research conducted using scientometrics methods, by analyzing the co-authorship network among researchers using the social network analysis indicators. 57460 articles published by Iranian medical researchers from 2003 to 2013 in Web of science were surveyed. To analyze the data from existing functions Bibexcel, Pajek, Vosviewer and UCIinet software were used and to test the hypothesis Spearman correlation test was employed.

The network density was 0/097, network clustering coefficient of 1/000, the mean distance of 2.5 and the network components index was calculated for 4 factors including a major factor with 1005 nodes and three minor factors with 20, 5 and 8 nodes. The results for centrality measures (micro), in degree centrality, network concentration of 0/573%, betweenness network centrality of 4.39 percent and the index of centrality closeness or the average of adjacent nodes of 40.382. In general, there is a strong and effective network of collaboration between Iranian researchers in the field of medicine.

Iran should make more efforts to accelerate international scientific development. To publish the article on proceedings, criticisms, corrections, letters, editorials and conferences in international journals, more research and budget allocations should be made. Appropriate budgeting should be determined in all medical fields, especially those with less scientific articles than other fields.