Study of co-authorship network of papers in the Journal of Research in Medical Sciences using social network analysis

Background: Co-authorship is one of the most tangible forms of research collaboration. A co-authorship network is a social network in which the authors through participation in one or more publication through an indirect path have linked to each other. Th e present research using the social network analysis studied co-authorship network of 681 articles published in Journal of Research in Medical Sciences (JRMS) during 2008-2012. Materials and Methods: Th e study was carried out with the scientometrics approach and using co-authorship network analysis of authors. Th e topology of the co-authorship network of 681 published articles in JRMS between 2008 and 2012 was analyzed using macro-level metrics indicators of network analysis such as density, clustering coeffi cient, components and mean distance. In addition, in order to evaluate the performance of each authors and countries in the network, the micro-level indicators such as degree centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality as well as productivity index were used. Th e UCINET and NetDraw softwares were used to draw and analyze the co-authorship network of the papers. Results: Th e assessment of the authors productivity in this journal showed that the fi rst ranks were belonged to only fi ve authors, respectively. Furthermore, analysis of the co-authorship of the authors in the network demonstrated that in the betweenness centrality index, three authors of them had the good position in the network. Th ey can be considered as the network leaders able to control the fl ow of information in the network compared with the other members based on the shortest paths. On the other hand, the key role of the network according to the productivity and centrality indexes was belonged to Iran, Malaysia and United States of America. Conclusion: Co-authorship network of JRMS has the characteristics of a small world network. In addition, the theory of 6° separation is valid in this network was also true.