Mapping the scientific landscape of Water Resources Management research in Iran focusing on trends, patterns, and future directions.

Background and aim: This study provides a comprehensive scientometric analysis of research literature in the field of water resources management in Iran, aiming to identify trends, patterns, and the impact of research in this domain between the years 2006 to 2023. Materials and methods: To map the scientific landscape of this field, all published articles by Iranian authors in international journals (662 documents) were collected from the Scopus database within the time frame 2006-2023. Scientometric techniques such as co-authorship networks and co-occurrence maps of keywords were utilized for data analysis. Key indices such as h-index, citation counts, and journal impact factors were calculated to assess the visibility and impact of Iranian research in water resources management. Statistical analyses were conducted using R software and VOSviewer. Findings: The findings revealed that the growth rate of Iranian papers in water resource management was 24.05%. In addition to quantity, the quality and citation rate of the articles have also increased over the years. A significant relationship (r=0.584) was observed between the number of documents and the number of citations of the authors. Furthermore, with an increase in the number of authors for each article, the number of citations for that article also increased significantly (r=0.180). The analysis of the scientific map of the studies revealed the identification of a pattern of six clusters, and climate change and water supply sustainability as the first cluster received the most emphasis in studies by Iranian authors. Conclusion: Climate change and water supply sustainability are among the most important areas that have received attention from Iranian researchers in recent years, which seems reasonable given the trend of climate change and frequent droughts in the country. There has been a significant increase in the number of citations as the number of documents authored by researchers has risen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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