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 structure; (2) dissemination of nanotechnology is more diffusive within sub-clusters than that of the whole network structure; and (3) taxonomy identified by co-word analysis in the research process matches the findings at the global level. Universities with the highest co-occurrence in terms of centralities in the network structure were studied. Then, we compared the results from each period to investigate the rate of diffusion of nano-related technology in Turkey. We found out that research on nano-related technology is done in a wide spectrum from Materials to Biomedical Sciences. Moreover, we found that TÜBİTAK and the Ministry of Development (MoD) have increased their funding support. We corroborate the findings by interviewing the key scientists or authors who are instrumental in the diffusion of nano-related technologies in Turkey. We collected and elaborated on 10 interviewees' responses using a qualitative method (Latent Semantic Analysis). Outcomes indicated that scientists' behavior who participated in interviews share similar patterns matching their co-authorship maps. It was concluded that the diffusion of nano-related technology is steadily progressing due to scientific collaboration among scientists through social network