Investigating the status of science production in institute, department and faculties of physical education and sports sciences in the country

The purpose of this study was to determine the scientific participation of members, departments and faculties of physical education and sports sciences of universities across Iran in the production of articles published in journals with Web of Science index during the years 1970 to the end of 2019. This research was carried out with scientometric approach and network analysis method using Histcite, Nodexl and Vosviower. The research community was the scientific products of researchers in the field of physical education and sports sciences in Iran on the Web of Science website. The findings showed that 1520 articles in 513 journals in the field of physical education and sports sciences have been published in Web of Science, out of which more than 550 works have been published in open access journals. Data analysis showed that based on the number of scientific productions, Tehran, Guilan and Isfahan universities are ranked first to third in the country with 265, 200 and 148 articles, respectively. Findings also show that researchers of physical education have published most their work in three countries respectively; Iran (Emerging list), Italy (with the index of Q4) and Turkey (Emerging list). It was also found that most of the collaborations and citations of Iranian writers have been with researchers from the United States.This study showed that in recent years, although the process of publishing articles in Web of Science journals has been associated with a steeper slope, a significant number of these articles have been published in domestic journals (Emerging) and other foreign journals that this phenomenon needs a closer look. The results also showed that some experienced colleges as well as some specialized and research bodies have appeared in order to publish articles in prestigious journals far from expectation, which also needs more detailed study.