Clustering and Analysis of the Status of Scientific Articles in the Field of Futures Studies

Clustering and co-word analysis is a method to reveal relationships and links and illustrate the intellectual structure of a scientific field. This research tries to study the intellectual structure of articles in the field of futures studies in Iran by using the technique of co-word analysis.
The current research is a descriptive-analytical development with a scientometric approach. The statistical population is 921 articles retrieved records in the field of futures studies.
The findings showed that articles in the field of futures studies in Iran are often associated with positive growth, and in terms of frequency, the keywords scenario, Islamic Republic, and foresight are the most frequent in futures studies. The findings related to the hierarchical clustering led to the formation of 8 clusters in this field, namely "ICT visions", "geographers who love the future", "knowledge development", " Futuristic higher education", "Future of Religion", "Regional Relations", "Strategic Foresight" and "Heavy Weight of Method".
According to the findings of the current research and the high frequency of the keyword scenario, as well as the density and relationships of this keyword with other keywords, it can be concluded that the scenario is the dominant approach in futures studies. Also, according to the resulting clusters, it was observed that these researches have a high variety, but addressing the future in many areas is still neglected.