Visualizing the structure of Iranian chemistry research in SciSearch using author co-citation technique*

To visualize the structure of Iranian chemistry scientific publications in SciSearch, 43 Iranian and International chemists were identified. They were the highly cited scientists in 7682 Iranian chemistry publications (defined as an article with at least one Iranian author address) indexed in Science Citation Index during the period from 1990 to 2006. Co-citation data for these authors from the entire SciSearch file (Dialog, File 34) was collected for the period under study. A PFNet analysis visualized the structure of Iranian chemistry research in SciSearch using author co-citation technique. The results showed that, Iranian and International authors tended to appear in separate sub networks. 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 source and time period.