Information Security Research in Iran: A Scientometric Analysis

This research has examined studies conducted in the field of information security in Iran with a scientometric approach to provide a comprehensive view of the status of this field.

The present applied study, which is a survey-cross-sectional, has been done using co-occurrence analysis and scientometric method. All the scientific papers published in the field of information security between the years 2001-2023 and indexed in the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) were examined (1,114 articles).

Amin Police University is at the top of science production in the field of information security in Iran with the publication of 92 articles. The journal of Societal Security Studies Scientific with the publication of 35 articles, has the most published articles in the field of information security. Bagheri (with 9 articles), Ebrahimi Atani (with 8 articles) and Tork Ladani (with 7 articles) were recognized as the three top scientists in the field of information security in Iran. The keyword "security" with the highest frequency of repetition was recognized as the most frequent concept. In terms of co-occurrence, the two keywords "security" and "border" were the most frequent. The word co-occurrence map showed the existence of 4 clusters in the field of security, information security, sense of security, sustainable security. "Terrorism" keyword, having the farthest distance from other keywords, was less related to other keywords.

After 2017, the downward trend of scientific publications in the field of information security was observed in Iran. Formation of a forum by specialized associations to exchange opinions and opinions of the authors of works in high quality research publications can be vital in the development of this field. The clusters of national security, stable security and crime were recognized as immature clusters of the scientific map of information security in Iranian articles. Conducting research to develop knowledge in the field of these concepts is recommended.