Mapping and Analyzing the Co-Authorship Network of Transgenic Researchers with a Network Analysis Approach

Transgenic species are the ones whose genomes are genetically modified. The transgenic field is one of the areas that has a high importance and position in the world. Therefore, the aim of the present research is to draw and analyze the co-authorship network of researchers in transgenic subject area.

The type of this research is descriptive and was carried out using scientometric techniques such as co-authorship network and social network analysis indices. In this study, 23,456 articles by transgenic researchers indexed in the Web of Science database during the period 2010-2019 were retrieved. VOSviewer and UCINET software were used to draw the co-authorship map and analyze the network indicators.

The scientific cooperation network of transgenic researchers was studied and analyzed using macro and micro indicators of the social network. The status of macro indicators was not appropriate and the network was poorly cohesive. So that, the network density was 0.027, the clustering coefficient was 0.834, the diameter was 15 and the average distance was 4.155. In terms of micro-indicators, the status of researchers in the network was determined in such a way that David Ayares had the most cooperation with other members and also Nam-Hai Chua played the most important role in communicating with people from different clusters of the network, finally, Yan Zhang had the shortest distance with other members of the network.

Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the co-authorship network of transgenic researchers has low cohesion and information is transmitted among members at a low speed. With respect to this, status of different researchers in this study was determined, the results of this study can be used to guide future collaborations, and encourage universities and scientific institutes to develop their interactions with each other and further strengthen collaborations. It should also be noted that according to the findings of the study in this field, Iranian researchers were not identified as key individuals in this network, which requires research on the status and position of Iranian researchers in the field of transgenics.