Geography

Purpose- Scientific papers are presented for benefit in journals. The studies are carried out academically and in accordance with the needs of society. Therefore, examining them is essential to journals and academics. This paper aims to analyze the articles of the Journal of Rural Planning and Research and the connection of these articles with the challenges and obstacles of rural development.Design/methodology/approach- Scientometrics research was the basis of the current research. Scientometrics is defined as quantitatively studying science or measuring the quality and impact of research. As a field, Scientometrics uses statistical methods and techniques to quantify research and achievements to reveal the research development process and can be a tool for decision-making. The main themes include measuring research quality and impact, citation processes, mapping scientific fields, and using indicators in research policy and management. The method of collecting information was from libraries and the citation database in the "Publish or Perish" software program. The indexes of "Network Density", "Centrality Degree", "Betweenness Centrality", "Eigenvector" and "Clustering Coefficient", as well as "H-Index", were used in this study. Ravar Matrix was used to prepare the self-interaction matrix, and Ucinet and Gephi were used to analyze the indicators and make graphs. Also, the co-occurrence of the keywords of the articles was the basis for identifying the topics of the articles.Findings- Journal of Rural Research and Planning (JRRP), has published 348 articles in 10 volumes and 35 issues. Authors such as Anabestani, Barghi and Rezvani had the highest number of connections in the collaboration network. On the other hand, researchers like Taghdisi, Anabestani, Afrakhteh and Bouzarjomehri are the most influential authors of the Journal. Moreover, the main topic of the papers is Economic Development in rural areas. According to the changes and evolution of the leading research topics, the issue of sustainable development has been one of the main research approaches in the last few years. After that, studies have been conducted more on sustainable livelihood development, connected with other topics.Originality / value- Neglecting social and cultural challenges seems to be the common shortcomings of rural research besides rural development programs in Iran. This issue indicates the need for more integration in research and calls for attention in development programs.

The extended breadth, brilliant historical background and powerful ancient empires lead researchers to conclude that Iran must have been powerful enough in those eras in scientific domains especially in terms of geographical knowledge. But the remaining scientific works in geographical arena isn’t considerable enough. In the present study, using the literature review method, an attempt has been made to reveal few geographical references about Iran prior to the advent of Islam. These references are books, manuscripts, inscription and epopee forms. Among the books, the Avesta, Bundahišn, Dēnkart, and Menog-i Khrad have a significant importance. Moreover, Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr, The wonder and remarkability of Sagastān, History of Karkā ḏe Bēṯ Selōḵ, The Chronicle of Arbela, Parthian Stations and Movses Khorenatsi are geography books that too discuss geographical issues of ancient Iran. The letters of ancient kings such as Ardashir-e Babakan, Tansar and Artabanus to Susa citizens also contain information about geography. Some inscriptions from ancient Iran have geographic concepts such as Darius, Persepolis, Susa, Xerxes I and Shapur I. There is a lack of geographers’ name in ancient Iran same as scientific references about geography. Only two people named Isidore Charax and Movses Khorenatsi could be found who studied the Iranian geography, directly.