Citation analysis and network drawing of schizophrenia-related articles

Background and aim: The aim of this study was to analyze and draw up a citation network of published schizophrenia-related resources in Iran from 2012 to 2016 so that this citation network provides a guidance for researchers and acquisition in information centers by specifying the status of resources and researchers in Iran. Material and methods: The current study was conducted through citation analysis method and using social network analysis. The study population was 5303 citations extracted from the list of 180 papers published in the field of schizophrenia in Iran. NodeXL software was used to analyze and draw the citation network and Excel software was applied for statistical calculations. Findings: There are 3 components in the citation network of schizophrenia-related articles. In the largest component, there are 2395 people who have cited each other 5287 times, and the network diameter is 12. The average distance in the network is 5.39 and the network density is less than 0.5, indicating low density of citations. Moreover, in terms of document type, articles (78.76%) have been cited more frequently than other resources. The most cited resource in the citation network is "Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry" compiled by Harold Kaplan and Benjamin James Sadock and the most cited author is Benjamin James Sadock. Conclusion: Generally, the citation network in schizophrenia is a dispersed network with a very low density in Iran, representing that the potential relationships have not been formed among authors.