Charting the Evolution of Applied Linguistics in Iran: Insights from a Scientometric Analysis

Abstract

Applied Linguistics has emerged as a crucial interdisciplinary field bridging theoretical linguistics with practical language-related issues, yet comprehensive scientometric analyses of its development in the Iranian context remain limited. This scientometric study investigates the landscape of Applied Linguistics research in Iran through analysis of 339 articles from Scopus (n=208) and Web of Science (n=131) databases containing "Applied Linguistics" as a keyword. Employing VOSviewer and Bibliometrix R Package, the research examines general scientometric information, publication and citation patterns, prolific sources/authors/universities, methodological approaches, and thematic developments from 2005 to 2024. Findings reveal quantitative methodologies were most common within Iranian Applied Linguistics research (42.77 %), followed by qualitative (30.38 %) and mixed- methods (26.84 %) approaches. This imbalance of the methodological orientation within these studies points to a need for exploration of qualitative or mixed-method approaches to address complex issues within the field of Applied Linguistics. As for the prominent entities, Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics with 15 articles, Alireza Jalilifar with 20 articles, and Islamic Azad University with 80 articles across all branches, emerged as the most productive within their respective categories. Furthermore, articles on academic writing received the highest citation impact among other subjects. Thematic analysis identified "genre analysis," "ELT," and "academic writing" with the highest citation rates. Moreover, themes such as “meta-analysis,” and “content analysis” were found to be emerging topics and need greater attention.