A Scientometric Analysis of the Journal Political Science, with an Emphasis on Its Conceptual Structure, Scientific Collaboration Network, and Citation Patterns

This study was conducted to provide a comprehensive analysis of the scholarly
and content-related profile of the journal Political Science and seeks, by employing scientometric approaches, to present an accurate picture of the structure of scholarly production in the journal. Accordingly, the study focuses primarily on three key dimensions: the conceptual structure of the journal’s scholarly output, the scientific collaboration network among its authors, and the journal’s citation indicators. The statistical population comprises 1,021 articles published between 2004 and 2023, with data collected from the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) database and the journal’s online submission and publication system. To analyze the data, specialized scientometric tools were employed, including RavarMatrix for extracting the word co-occurrence matrix and UCINET and NetDraw for visualizing and analyzing scientific networks. The findings indicate that the journal’s thematic structure is organized into 22 distinct conceptual clusters. These clusters encompass a broad range of key topics in political science, including Islamic political thought, the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, security and national interests, democracy and political participation, political identity, political jurisprudence, social justice, and political discourses in Iran and the Islamic
world. The breadth of this thematic range indicates the journal’s multidimensional
and interdisciplinary character, while also reflecting its continued focus on fundamental issues in political science. Following the adoption of scientific publishing policies and
the journal’s attainment of scientific-research status in 2011, the journal underwent a discernible conceptual shift. During the first period (2004–2010), foundational, theoretical, and discursive concepts predominated, whereas in the second period (2011–2023), the journal’s content shifted toward more specialized, problem-oriented, and applied topics. The analysis of citation patterns likewise indicates that articles published between 2004 and 
2006, prior to the journal’s attainment of scientific-research status, had the greatest impact due to their discursive and agenda-setting character and consequently received the highest number of citations. By contrast, during the second period, the structural requirements imposed on scientific-research articles appear to have somewhat reduced the rate at which articles accumulated citations. Overall, the findings of this study provide a comprehensive, longitudinal, and data-driven picture of the intellectual and social structure of the journal Political Science over a twenty-year period. This analysis can serve as a basis for improving academic publishing policies, enhancing publication quality, and restoring the journal’s position as an influential source of scholarly discourse. The findings concerning the authors’ academic collaboration network further indicate that collaboration within the journal operates predominantly through a multi-cluster, networked structure, comprising two major author clusters with the highest levels of connectivity and several secondary clusters with moderate levels of interaction. An analysis of the authors’ institutional affiliations shows that Baqir al-Olum University, the University of Tehran, Shahid Beheshti University, and Imam Sadiq University have made the greatest contributions to the journal’s scholarly output and function as its principal centers of knowledge production.