The Co-Authorship social network structure of countries in the field of nuclear science and technology analysis: the micro and macro level indicators

This study aimed to analyze the co-authorship topological structure of social networks in countries in the field of nuclear science and technology.
This research is bibliometrics type and in order to visualize the Co-Authorship networks, the network analysis has been used. The statistical population of the research included all researchers who at least one article in the field of Nuclear Science and Technology in science expanded Citation Index in three-year period has indexed from them.
Findings: The macro-level indicators of countries Co-Authorship Network study in the field of nuclear science and technology in each three period indicate that this structure by having the characteristics of the shortest path average, low the diameter of the network (less than or equal to 6), and relatively high clustering coefficient, is considered a kind of network "small world network". The micro-level indicators analysis shows that the status of the member countries in the nuclear club in this network is a critical position and their power and influence in networks is much higher than in other countries. In addition, a high dispersion among centrality scores is ruled in the countries.