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The Korean Government continues to support the photovoltaic (PV) sector to develop high-efficiency, high-reliability PV technologies. However, considering this R&D investment the level of Korean PV technology is low. In this study, PV-related SCI (Science Citation Index) papers issued from 2009 to 2012 are investigated to understand the trends of the technology and its research network. SCI papers on dyesensitized solar cells and organic/polymer solar cells are more common than papers on other PV related technologies. A qualitative comparative analysis is also conducted into the impact factor of the journals. Finally, social network analysis is used to investigate indicators, such as density and centrality, to help policy makers direct future R&D investment more effectively. The results reveal that USA and European countries such as Germany, the UK, and Spain published the most influential papers, while Asian countries such as China, Korea, and Japan stood out in terms of quantity. Countries and institutes with more diverse collaborations tend to publish more papers, and the network of countries is becoming stronger and more diverse, while institutes are tending to collaborate more in exclusive subgroups. Korean PV-related research is relatively high in terms of quantity and collaboration, but more effort is necessary to improve its quality and network range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]