Investigating the Relationship between International Scientific Collaboration and Citations of Highly Cited and Hot Papers of the Iranian Researchers in the Web of Science Database

This study aims to investigate the relationship between international scientific collaboration and highly-cited and hot papers of Iranian researchers in the Web of Science during 2010-2019. This research refers to the highly cited or hot articles in the Web of Science database.

The present study is an applied descriptive, including a scientometric approach. The research population includes 2747 highly-cited and hot papers of Iranian researchers indexed in Essential Scientific Indicators (ESI) and Web of Science (WoS) databases during 2010-2019.The research tool is an “advanced search” tool of the Web of Science database. For this purpose, first, articles related to Iran during 2010-2019 were extracted from the Web of Science database. By searching Iran, all the articles were retrieved. By limiting the search to highly cited articles and hot papers science scholars during  2010-2019 were extracted. Data was collected by Microsoft Excel software and analyzed by correlation and regression tests using SPSS (version 22) software.

The largest number of scientific collaborations included the United States (534), China (449), and the United Kingdom (338). Findings showed the most collaborations in highly cited and hot articles published in 2018 and 2019. Also, the most collaborations in writing highly cited articles in the subject areas were engineering with 374 (33710 citations), Physics with 155 (26158), and clinical medicine with 154 (60397 citations); Furthermore, the most cooperation in writing hot articles in the subject areas of engineering with 18 (983 citations), materials science with 14 (253 citations), and clinical medicine with  12 (1686 citations). Findings showed that the number of highly cited articles with the cooperation of two countries was 566 (50266), for three countries it was 274 (24351), for more than 15 countries it was 226 (86575), and the number of hot papers with the cooperation of two countries was 22 (713), for more than 15 Country it was 19 (1914), for three countries it was 12 (339). Findings showed that a positive and significant relationship was observed between the number of international collaborations and the number of citations received (without self-citation) of highly cited and hot papers. Whenever the coefficient becomes significant in the regression model, it means that in the regression model, the predictor variable has an effect on the dependent variable. If the value of P is less than a, the coefficient is significant. The regression model on the research variables with the presence of the predictor variable (the number of highly cited articles). In general, the number of collaborations is presented as the most suitable model that explains the variance of the criterion variable (number of citations) and the test is positive and significant. The findings show that the relationship between countries' researchers' cooperation and the number of citations received by highly cited articles is a strong, positive, and significant predictor.

Based on this, with the increase in cooperation, we see an increase in the number of cited articles by Iranian researchers. The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between the number of international collaborations of article researchers and the number of citations received. International scientific collaborations have increased the quality of research outputs (hot and highly cited papers) of Iranian researchers. According to the findings of the current research as well as the findings of the investigated backgrounds and confirmation of the impact of coauthorship and international scientific cooperation on increasing visibility and receiving citations, encouraging more international scientific cooperation, and allocating suitable funds and facilities. For this type of activities, the researchers of universities and research centers in Iran should be put on the agenda. With this action, the expansion of the research field of this research considering various aspects of international scientific cooperation in universities and research centers of the country can be considered.