Scientometric Analysis and Co-authoring Patterns and Citations of Articles in Iranian and Turkish Journals Indexed in WoS

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the scientific performance of authors in Iranian and Turkish journals in the Web of Science (WOS). The study also aims to analyze the citation behavior of authors and map their co-authorship.

The present study is a scientometric study that utilizes social network analysis. Data analysis is conducted using Microsoft Excel, while social network mapping is performed using VOSviewer.

This research provides a general overview of the scientific publications from two prominent countries, Iran and Turkey, within the D-8 group of developing Islamic countries. The data was collected from the WoSa database. The research findings show that 50% of the records in Iranian journals were produced by Iranian authors, while 60% of the records in Turkish journals were produced by Turkish authors. Among these two countries' journals, the most international scientific cooperation has taken place among Iran, Turkey, China, India and the United States.the conclusion reveals that a total of 1,624 degrees from Iranian publications and 15,464 degrees from Turkish publications have been indexed in the database between 2017 and 2019. The dispersion distribution of Iranian and Turkish publications is in accordance with Bradford's law, that is, a small number of publications (three Iranian and Turkish publications) published the largest number of scientific documents (thirty percent in Iranian publications and fifteen percent in Turkish publications). This issue also applies to the most cited publications. So that 33 percent of the citations of Iranian publications and 24 percent of the citations of Turkish publications belong to 3 Iranian and Turkish publications. In Iranian publications, 50% of scientific documents are produced by Iranian authors, and in Turkish publications, about 60% of scientific documents are produced by Turkish authors.Also, writers from China, India, and America have a significant and active presence in the publications of both countries. The results of the surveys of the most prolific authors showed that in Turkish publications, all prolific authors are national writers from Turkey, while this issue is different in Iranian publications, and among the 11 prolific authors of Iranian publications, 2 Chinese authors are It can be seen that this shows the strong presence of Chinese writers in Iranian publications. The ratio of citations to articles in Iranian publications is about 8.3 citations per article, and 4.2 citations per article in Turkish publications. Also, the average number of citations to articles in Iranian publications is equal to 2 and in Turkish publications is equal to 1. As a result, the citation status of Iranian publications is more favorable than Turkish publications, both in terms of the ratio of citations to articles and the average of citations. In the publications of both countries, the articles from 2017 received the most citations. The articles of Iranian publications have received the highest number of citations from the countries of Iran, China, India, America, Turkey, and England, respectively. Additionally, in Turkish publications, the highest number of citations came from Turkey, China, the United States, India, Iran, and Italy, in that order.By examining foreign quoting institutions and countries, it was found that institutions affiliated with China and the United States cited articles from Iranian and Turkish publications the most. This supports Lotka's law, which states that the distribution of articles produced by partner institutions in Iranian and Turkish publications follows a pattern where a limited number of institutions produce the majority of the documents. In Iranian publications, ten prolific institutions account for forty-three percent of the documents, while in Turkish publications, ten prolific institutions account for twenty-five percent of the documents.It is worth mentioning that the growing willingness of researchers to collaborate with other authors in producing joint scientific documents can have a significant impact on increasing visibility and receiving more citations over time. This is something that researchers should take into consideration. The results related to scientific cooperation in Iranian publications show that America, Iran, China, and India had the highest amount of scientific cooperation with other countries, with 60, 58, 39, and 39 cooperation links, respectively. Meanwhile, the authors from Iran and America had the most extensive and robust scientific cooperation with each other. America is known as the primary partner of Iranian researchers in international cooperation. In Turkish publications, Turkey, America and England established the most scientific cooperation with other countries with 66, 61 and 59 links respectively. Mapping the social network in countries' co-authorship shows that authors from the United States are recognized as the main collaborators of Iranian and Turkish researchers in scientific and international co-authorship. Also, the status of study citations shows that Iranian journals have more favorable citation rates and median citations compared to Turkish journals.