Visualizing Hot and Emerging Topics in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Iran

The purpose of this descriptive research was to identify hot and emerging topics in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Iran and to map the intellectual structure of this field in a ten-year period. The intellectual structure of the field of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Iran was studied by analyzing co-occurrences of keywords and cited references. The research population of this study was all research and review papers of Iranian researchers published in journals indexed by the Web of Science database from 2008 to 2017. The collected data from Web of Science were analyzed by the CiteSpace Software in order to map the intellectual structure of this field. The results showed that the keywords such as gene expression, protein, in vitro, oxidative stress, binding, apoptosis and cell were among the hot research topics in Iran and terms such as chitosan, nanocomposite, antibacterial activity, dynamics molecules, stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells and immobilization have been indicative of the emerging topics in Iranian research in the studied time period. Increasing publications in the field of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Iran at the international level and its inclusion in the country's research priorities led us to conduct a scientometric study of this research area. Therefore, due to the hot and emerging topics identified in this research, such studies can be used as a road map for the country's large-scale scientific planning and policy.