Co-citation mapping for prominent researchers in medical and laboratory equipment

The aim of the current study was to draw up a co-citation map of prominent researchers in the medical and laboratory equipment based on the scientific articles indexed in the Web of Science (WoS).

This scientometric study was carried out using co-citation analysis. The statistical population of this study was all articles in the field of medical and laboratory equipment indexed over 30 years (1984-2014) in the WoS. In the current study, UCINET and its NetDraw were used to draw scientific maps and SPSS was applied for hierarchical clustering.

The findings showed that Aaronson NK is the most cited researcher in the field of medical and laboratory equipment in terms of total citations received. Moreover, data related to co-citation data of authors indicated that Craig R-Millon T had the highest co-citation rate (33 cases) with each other. Among the high
co-citation of subject categories of articles related to medical and laboratory equipment, the "medical equipment" and "medicine" had the highest rank in degree centrality index, betweenness and closeness. Analyzing the findings of the
co-citation articles led to the formation of 7 clusters (neurological disorders, cardiovascular disorders, immunology, diagnostic and treatment equipment cluster, cancer and chemotherapy, public health and microbiology).

Creating a co-citation link among authors in the field of medical and laboratory equipment reflects the intellectual connection among the authors of this field of science, and all high-article authors of the medical and laboratory equipment are not necessarily influential, high-citation and high- centrality authors.