Observation of national security studies in Iran: Analysis based on the twenty-year development vision document of the Islamic Republic of Iran

 The pillars of national security based on Iran’s 20-Year Vision Document may be achieved in the dimensions of social, economic, political, cultural, military, defense, and environmental security. The present article aims to identify and introduce the top research in each area by monitoring the scientific output in this field in the country. 

 The present research is an applied research with a scientometric approach conducted cross-sectionally between 2001 and 2023. A total of 6,554 indexed articles on national security in the ISC database were quantitatively reviewed to identify the top scientific outputs and important research topics in national security in Iran. Scientific maps were drawn using bibliometrics in R and VOSviewer software.    

 The trend of scientific production was upward, and the highest number of publications in all fields was between 2013 and 2018. The analysis of the statistical population showed that most of the research was conducted on social security, accounting for 42.05% of all national security outputs. Economic security with 19.49% and political security with 14.82% respectively ranked second and third. The journal “Studies of Social Security” was recognized as the leading journal with 460 articles in the field of social security and 26 articles in the field of cultural security. The scientific monthly “Economic Security” in the field of economic security; “Strategic Studies” in the fields of military security, political security, and environmental security published the most articles, and the journal “Defense Policy” was recognized as the superior in the field of defense security. The research journal “Law and Order Security” had the highest impact factor (1.96) and the journal “Environmental Science and Technology” had the highest accumulative citation (467).

 Geopolitical issues and the orientation of Iran’s foreign policy in the international system, legitimizing the system, cyber threats, and governance of media and social networks require further research to achieve scientific maturity in the field of national security.