Scientometric Analysis of Nuclear Science and Technology Research Output in Iran

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate internationally published research productivity and make quantitative and qualitative assessments of the status of nuclear science and technology in Iran. The data have been collected from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) for the years 1990–2010. The results of this work reveal that the Iranian literature on nuclear science and technology has grown exponentially during the study period. The average number of citations per paper is 5.64. Academic institutions are the main source of research productivity. About 93 per cent of the papers are co-authored. Internationally co-authored papers enjoy higher citation rates in comparison with domestic papers. Disciplinary characterization of the Iranian nuclear science and technology research identifies that emphasis is placed on physics and chemistry and that the publications in which the research appears are distributed evenly among a number of scientific fields.