Iran Social Science Issue on WOS.pdf (2.25 MB)
Iran’s Social Sciences Issues in Web of Science (WoS): Who Said What?
Version 2 2018-06-29, 08:51
Version 1 2018-06-29, 08:47
journal contribution
posted on 2018-06-29, 08:51 authored by Abbas Ghanbari BaghestanAbbas Ghanbari Baghestan, mehrnoosh akhtari-zavaremehrnoosh akhtari-zavareThe complexity and interconnected patterns of change in the 21st century have resulted in significant transformation in Iran. During the last two decades, much academic effort
from a variety of disciplines went into trying to understand, examine and predict these transformations. However, there are no in-depth studies on these profound social and cultural
changes as exemplified in global scientific productions. Using a bibliometric approach, we present a comprehensive study of the image of the social sciences in Iran based on the search item “Iran’s Social Sciences” in the Web of Science (WoS). The data were collected from Web of Science’s Core Collections between 2000 and 2017 and was limited to document-type articles in the category of Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Collection efforts resulted in 4,666 documents being retrieved. The majority of the documents were published in English and were written by Iranian authors. The results of this study show that international collaboration through networking and co-authorship was lower than the global average. In terms of content, health- and medical-related concepts and themes were dominant in overall publications. Given this remarkable insight, more collaboration between sociologists in Iran with scholars from other countries is needed to better
highlight the desired issues and topics.
Further research might focus on the current ‘business models’ of publishing. While we advise launching more scientific journals at the global level, it is important to evaluate whether international business models of publishing are really encouraging or if they pose unnecessary bias and restrictions on knowledge development and participation
of Iranian world-class sociologists.
from a variety of disciplines went into trying to understand, examine and predict these transformations. However, there are no in-depth studies on these profound social and cultural
changes as exemplified in global scientific productions. Using a bibliometric approach, we present a comprehensive study of the image of the social sciences in Iran based on the search item “Iran’s Social Sciences” in the Web of Science (WoS). The data were collected from Web of Science’s Core Collections between 2000 and 2017 and was limited to document-type articles in the category of Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Collection efforts resulted in 4,666 documents being retrieved. The majority of the documents were published in English and were written by Iranian authors. The results of this study show that international collaboration through networking and co-authorship was lower than the global average. In terms of content, health- and medical-related concepts and themes were dominant in overall publications. Given this remarkable insight, more collaboration between sociologists in Iran with scholars from other countries is needed to better
highlight the desired issues and topics.
Further research might focus on the current ‘business models’ of publishing. While we advise launching more scientific journals at the global level, it is important to evaluate whether international business models of publishing are really encouraging or if they pose unnecessary bias and restrictions on knowledge development and participation
of Iranian world-class sociologists.
