The Growth and Interdisciplinary Patterns of Nanoscale Research in Iran

Based on citation analysis, this work describes the growth and interdisciplinary patterns of nanoscale research in Iran. It covers all the Iranian ISI papers on nanoscience and nanotechnology indexed in the ISI databases in 2008 and surveys the corresponding data from the beginning to 2007. Moreover, in an international context, a brief comparison is made between our data and those of other countries. A substantial annual growth rate is obtained for the number of publications and their corresponding citations. By the end of 2008, eighteen different subject fields including thirty-eight disciplines comprised the foundations of nanoscale research. The topmost subject field is chemical sciences and the topmost discipline appears to be physics. Hence, nanoscale research in Iran is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary endeavor (through a convergence among basic sciences and engineering) that pervades among other subject fields and/or disciplines starting with materials and physics and later extending to chemistry and other areas. In an interdependent context, this is possibly due to the dynamic nature and potentials of nanoscience and nanotechnology. In general, nanoscale research in Iran resembles the overall worldwide nanopublication patterns excepting the rather greater concentration on the scientific over the technology orientations.