Analysis of Scientific Collaborations of Iranian Researchers in Blockchain Technology Area

This study aims to analyze the multidimensional scientific collaborations of Iranian researchers in Blockchain technology. For this purpose, the published scientific documents related to Blockchain in international journals were retrieved from two citation databases, Scopus of Elsevier and Web of Science of Clarivate, and used with ScientoPy v2.1.0 bibliography software to integrate and visualize the data with VOSviewer software. We searched databases without limiting the date until September 29, 2021. Researchers in this field indexed 158 records during five years in citation databases and found that the collaboration index equals 3.91. This study depicted Iranian researchers' cooperation patterns in the Blockchain field. The 149 national and international organizations in 43 countries collaborated to publish articles in the Blockchain area with Iranian researchers. The impact of co-authorship with citations rate was analyzed to increase the flow of knowledge between researchers in this field. There was a weak, positive correlation between the two variables, r = .209, N = 152; however, the relationship was significant (p = .010). The number of researchers appears to be associated with the rate of citation. With the results of this study, policy recommendations can be provided for managers and decision-makers in science and technology. The potential benefits of Blockchain technology activists can be used to develop national interests by determining the existing conditions for cooperation between Iranian researchers.