A bibliometric analysis of Iranian Journal of Fuzzy Systems (2007-2020)

Iranian Journal of Fuzzy Systems (IJFS) is an international journal, based on the WoS core collection, this paper uses bibliometric methods and tools (VOSviewer and Bibliometrix) to analyze the publications of IJFS from 2007 to 2020. A total of 716 publications are analyzed. Firstly, according to the basic information of the publications, including the type of publications, the number of publications, the number of citations, the average number of citations and the h-index, we conduct a general statistical analysis to explore the basic characteristics and internal structure of the publications. Afterwards, by studying the citation structure of publications, this paper analyzes which groups and fields the journal is more concerned about. For the journal itself, we combine the number of citations and the number of publications to identify the most popular publications, the most productive and influential authors/institutes/countries/regions. In the collaboration network analysis, we map the collaboration network of countries/regions, institutes and authors to explore the different levels of collaboration. The co-citation network of the journal is studied to explore the relationship between IJFS and other international academic journals. In the analysis of keywords, we discuss the development trend and hot topics of keywords over time through co-occurrence analysis, word growth graph and thematic evolution analysis. Finally, based on the above analysis, we discuss the problems and challenges that the journal may face, and some main conclusions are drawn. This study has certain reference value for the further development of the related researchers�� scientific research and the journal.