The structure of Iranian chemistry research, 1990–2006: An author cocitation analysis

To study the structure of Iranian chemistry research, we identified 43 Iranian and international chemists who were highly cited in 7,682 Iranian chemistry publications (defined as an article with at least one Iranian author address) indexed in Science Citation Index (SciSearch) between 1990 and 2006, inclusive. We collected cocitation data for these authors from the entire SciSearch file (Dialog, File 34) over the time period. A principal components analysis identified seven interrelated factors accounting for 78% of the variance in the cocitation matrix. Iranian and international authors tended to load on separate factors. Three factors—synthesis of carbonyl compounds, solvent‐free synthesis of organic compounds and oxidation of organic compounds—had an inter‐correlation of | 0.3 | or higher. Physical organic chemistry and ionophores (a mixed factor of Iranian and international authors) connected at a lower value, while crown ethers and analytical chemistry were essentially uncorrelated. The PFNet structure maintained the topical factor groupings and Iranian and international authors tended to appear in separate subnetworks. Geographic and institutional influences, apparently relating in part to institutional affiliation and in part to restricted research topics, appear to underlie the primary structural features of Iranian chemistry in this time period.