Assessing the Diffusion of Nanotechnology in Turkey: A Social Network Analysis Approach

Abstract

This dissertation assesses the diffusion of nanoscience and nanotechnology in the scientific community in the last decade using Social Network Analysis (SNA) in Turkey. This dissertation aims to evaluate the flow of knowledge diffusion of nanotechnology among scientists by using ethnographic methods, co-words analysis and by focusing on an invisible college in the scientific community in terms of citation analysis in Turkey. A total of 10,062 articles and reviews were extracted from WoS (2664 between 2000 and 2005, and 7398 between 2006 and 2011) using a compound text query. Results compiled from co-authorship network analysis comprised a high closeness centrality indicating the small-world phenomenon which facilitates the diffusion of nano-related technology in Turkey. We discovered the scientists who are instrumental in the diffusion of nanotechnology knowledge in the network. We test the hypotheses that: (1) prolific authors stimulate the diffusion of nanotechnology in network.