Publications of psychology in the top 10 Iranian universities in Scopus from 1969 to 2022: A bibliometric analysis

The present research aims to study the status of publications and scientific collaboration and word co-occurrence networks in the field of psychology in Iran, focusing on the top 10 universities using the Scopus database.

The research method used is descriptive and based on a bibliometric study. A sample of 1968 documents in the field of psychology from 1969 to 2022 was examined. VOSviewer software was utilized to visualize bibliometric networks.

The results showed an increasing trend in the number of publications over time, with research articles having the highest number of publications, while review articles received the highest number of citations. University of Tehran, Kharazmi University, and Shahid Beheshti University were identified as the main centers for psychological research in Iran. The United States was considered the most important international collaborator. The author collaboration network consisted of professors, students, and graduates from the top 10 universities in Iran, as well as researchers from various countries, with Alireza Moradi and Nima Ghorbani being recognized as important individuals in the author network. The co-occurrence network of keywords revealed three main domains: effectiveness evaluation of interventions, personality and measurement of psychological aspect, and psychological pathology and mental health. The top five trending topics included procedures, treatment outcomes, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychology, and humans.

The results of this study indicate that the publications in the field of psychology in Iran in the international journals have achieved significant quantitative and qualitative growth. However, the role and importance of top universities in Iran in the dissemination of these publications is not uniform.