Background and aim: The aim of this study was to draw co-citation map of outstanding authors in the field of image retrieval based on articles indexed in ISI from 2001 to 2012.

Material and methods: This scientometric study was performed using bibliometric techniques such as co-citation analysis. Samples of the current study were all articles indexed in ISI in the field of image retrieval from 2001 to 2012. Therefore, 2537 papers were retrieved in this field. Citespace and Webometric Analyst software were used to analyze the co-citation of authors.

Findings: Results indicated that there were 84 co-citation links among 58 most cited authors in the network of co-citation authors. Tao DC and Zhang HJ reached the first rank with writing 26 articles. Rui Y was the most cited author with 627citations. Highest centrality, sigma and burst were related to RuiY with 0.55, Smith JR with 20.63 and Dattar R with 42.71, respectively.

Conclusion: Creating co-citation links among the authors of image retrieval shows the intellectual relevance among the authors of this field. It is obvious that none of the authors with high papers is an effective and most cited author and has the highest centrality, sigma and burst in the field of image retrieval.