نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 دانشجوی کارشناسی ارشد، بخش علم اطلاعات و دانش شناسی دانشگاه شیراز.
2 استادیار بخش علم اطلاعات و دانش شناسی دانشگاه شیراز.
3 دانشیار بخش علم اطلاعات و دانش شناسی دانشگاه شیراز.
چکیده
کلیدواژه‌ها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
Purpose: The outbreak of COVID-19 has posed significant global challenges, resulting in irrevocable changes to daily life and economic performance. To manage this crisis, the scientific community intensified research and development efforts, making COVID-19 research a global priority. The World Health Organization (WHO) encouraged countries and research institutions to collaborate closely in updating empirical evidence. Iran was significantly affected by this epidemic in various ways. Concurrently, extensive efforts were made in Iran, alongside other nations, to combat the disease. Given this context, it is important to study and clarify the role Iranian researchers played in developing COVID-19 studies. This study aims to analyze the network of scientific collaboration among Iranian researchers in the field of COVID-19.
Methodology:This applied research utilized the social network analysis method to examine the co-authorship network of researchers, using social network indices. The statistical population consisted of all articles related to COVID-19 authored by at least one Iranian researcher, and indexed in the Scopus database from the onset of the pandemic until May 2022. A total of 7,943 articles by Iranian researchers, indexed in the Scopus database from 2019 to 2022, were analyzed. UCINET software was used to calculate the macro and micro indices of the network, while VOSviewer software was employed to map the collaboration network of Iranian COVID-19 researchers.
Findings: The results indicated that the five most prolific authors were Nima Rezaei (142 articles), Amirhossein Sahebkar (72 articles), Payam Tabarsi (62 articles), Amir Pakpour Hajagha (45 articles), and Alireza Zali (40 articles). The universities with the highest number of publications were Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, and Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. The journal with the most publications (80 articles) was International Immunopharmacology. The scientific collaboration network of Iranian researchers in the field of COVID-19 consists of 467 nodes, 19 clusters, and 4,003 links, with the largest cluster comprising 43 researchers. Additionally, Iran has established strong connections with countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, with 99 links and an overall link strength of 6,650. However, the network density was low, with only 2.8% of potential collaborations realized. The results also showed that the network’s clustering coefficient index was greater than 1. Regarding the average path length of the COVID-19 collaboration network, on average, any two researchers in the network could be connected through 3.088 intermediary nodes, which indicates that most connections among researchers were direct rather than indirect. The degree centrality was 40.636, and the network’s concentration index was 1.581%, with Tabarsi and Jamati having the highest co-authorship and being the most participatory and active researchers in this field. In terms of betweenness centrality, the results showed that researchers in this network held leadership and intermediary positions 94.8% of the time, which is significant. Among them, researchers such as Jafari (12,132.229) and Tabarsi (7,805.717) emerged as key intermediaries. The average closeness centrality index of the network was 33.150. Tabarsi, Salehi, and Zali, with the highest closeness centrality, demonstrated greater influence within the network. As a result, universities, research centers, and policymakers should pay special attention to these individuals and groups, effectively utilizing their capacities and abilities.
Conclusion: The scientific collaboration network of Iranian researchers in the field of COVID-19 exhibits low cohesion, with a significant portion of collaborations dependent on a limited number of active researchers. While prolific researchers played a crucial role in maintaining network cohesion, they did not establish extensive links with other researchers. Only a few active researchers acted as intermediaries within the network. Planning and implementing supportive and incentive measures could strengthen scientific collaborations and improve network cohesion in the future. Given the values for the clustering coefficient and network density, it appears that the present network can be considered a small-world network, indicating a high tendency among researchers for future collaborations. Based on the findings, universities and research centers should provide opportunities for less active researchers to connect with more influential ones, fostering new scientific collaborations. This can play a significant role in advancing knowledge in this field. Additionally, leveraging the experiences of researchers who participated in international COVID-19 collaboration groups, particularly during critical conditions, could help the country's scientific policymakers to actively work toward removing barriers to international collaborations between Iranian researchers and their global counterparts, especially during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
کلیدواژه‌ها [English]
)