Scientific progress has been one of the critical concerns of many nations in recent decades. It has become one of the top priorities at the highest policy-making levels in several countries. During ...the last two decades, several policies have been developed to achieve scientific progress and leadership in different parts of the world. For example, China, Japan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran have designed their policies to accelerate scientific progress and achieve scientific leadership in a specific region. However, there is no comprehensive framework to measure the extent of scientific leadership in theory or practice. This study proposes a multidimensional framework for measuring scientific leadership in countries through a qualitative approach. To address this objective, key dimensions, indicators, and metrics for measuring scientific leadership were identified in the literature and policy documents. After the identification of these dimensions, indicators, and metrics, they were verified and weighted by different expert panels. According to the findings, a comprehensive framework for measuring scientific leadership includes five dimensions and 22 indicators and metrics. Results showed that "institutions" is more important than other dimensions in the framework. Since the nature of "scientific leadership" concept is more political than scientific, considering dimensions and indicators covered by the media is a more effective way to measure it. The findings of this study can give policymakers a more comprehensive and accurate view of the concept of scientific leadership and assist them in various planning and research policies. In addition, the proposed framework is the basis for future research seeking to assess scientific leadership quantitatively.
Reporting research limitations in academic literature is very important for understanding and utilizing research findings. This study aims to assess the extent to which and how research limitations ...acknowledged in Persian theses and dissertations (TDs). 664 Persian TDs published from 2009 to 2018 selected randomly through cluster sampling technique from IranDoc’s TDs database and the last chapter of 578 TDs analyzed. Through content analysis method, reported limitations analyzed and coded. Around 17% of TDs (99/578) addressed at least one limitation in their reports, while 64% of them had a specific heading for this section. The trend of reporting limitations has increased during current decades and students in humanities areas have paid more attentions to this section. Overall, 22 key limitations have been repeated 268 times in the TDs and “sampling bias” is more frequent with 29 repeats among them. Addressing research limitations in TDs is very incomplete. Transparent addressing of research limitations may help readers and stakeholders understand and apply research findings more effectively. The role of educators and academic institutes to inform newcomer researchers about the importance and structure of research limitations section in their reports is vital. This is the first study to examine research limitations in Persian academic literature and can inspire more research on this subject. The stakeholders of research, such as faculties, students, universities, research centers, readers/beneficiaries, and sponsors will be informed about key research limitations in TDs.
Development of digital tools and emergence and expansion of cyberspace did not go down for a short time, but the growth of these tools and space was so large that it involved most people, ...institutions, and processes. In the virtual universe, a large volume of content is created daily in a variety of ways and is at the hands of users. One of the key challenges in such a space is to protect the copyright and prevent it from violation. Although the protection of such a right in the physical space is not difficult, and the various rules and regulations guarantee this right, in cyberspace, due to its features, there are many challenges to the protection of copyright and notifies. However, the acceleration of the development and expansion of digital tools is also added to these difficulties and challenges. In this situation, countries have either tried independently or through ratification of regional and international treaties to protect copyright in this new space. The key goal of this article is to look at the arrangements made in the Universal Documents, the law of the United States, Canada, and Iran in this regard. In order to achieve this goal, legal documents related to this field have been gathered and, while expressing some challenging features of cyberspace in comparison with the real environment, have been explained about the way in which the relevant provisions are maintained.
Developing countries may pay attention to bibliometric indicators in accordance with their scientific development plans. Bibliometrics research topics and bibliometric indicators have grown ...dramatically in Iran since 2000 as a part of the post-war reconstruction programs. This paper aims to highlight how scientometrics may attract attention in developing countries such as Iran in response to national movements in education and science. An in-depth review on available guidelines for promotion of innovation, science, and technology in Iran was done followed by a review on previous research in this topic. Further data were gathered from Scopus and other sources. The findings show a considerable growth in research output of Iran in recent years and expansion of bibliometrics studies and jobs accordingly. Combined with research output measures, more attention was found in academia about cross-section development of science and technology in Iran. The demand in society has led to the foundation of scientometrics programs in Iranian universities as well as scientometrics departments in central libraries and research deputies in major academic institutions. The changing image of science and research in Iran has a relation with the growth of scientometrics academic and professional departments. The lessons taught from this mutual collaboration can be used in other developing nations.
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to develop a framework for categorizing and evaluating stakeholders that addresses the key five constraints of The Theory of Stakeholder Identification and ...Salience (TSIS), including (1) binary attributes, (2) heterogeneous stakeholders in each category, (3) ignoring stakeholder-organization relationship, (4) ignoring stakeholders' communication frequency and (5) ignoring fringe stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachIn the first step, a set of solutions for the limitations and constraints of TSIS was extracted by holding three rounds of the Delphi method with the participation of 42 senior and middle Iranian managers in various organizations and based on it, “Basic Analysis for Stakeholder Evaluation and Classification” (BASEClass) was developed as an enhanced theoretical and empirical framework for stakeholder analysis. In the second Step BASEClass is validated by conducting an empirical study in an organization with the participation of 46 managers, experts and specialists.FindingsBASEClass is an enhanced theoretical and methodological framework for classifying stakeholders based on the three primary attributes of legitimacy, power and urgency, and also the communication quantity as a complementary attribute in a 3D cubical schema, prioritizing stakeholders in several cubes based on one of the multi-criteria group decision-making methods. Originality/valueBASEClass effectively reduces the mentioned limitations and constraints of TSIS and as a result can improve the effectiveness of strategies for dealing with different stakeholders.
Objective: Writing the lay summary is one of the methods for the popularization of science and has been developed for more than two decades for making the general public aware of the results of ...academic inquiries and scientific research. However, the number of these summaries is not yet large, and it is not yet clear why researchers are reluctant to write these summaries and what drives could encourage them in writing these summaries. Therefore, this research seeks to identify the key drivers and barriers for writing lay summaries.Methodology: The research questions are addressed through a systematic review method. After retrieving nearly 2900 records from Iranian and global databases (such as SID, Ganj, Magiran, Web of Science, Scopus, etc.), 56 studies were identified and analyzed in order to extract the main drivers and barriers. All full-texts of selected publications were studied and drivers and barriers for writing lay summaries were identified.Findings: The findings showed that 19 drivers and 17 barriers have an important role in writing lay summaries. The key drivers are moral duty, increasing reputation, employers’ request, practical application of the findings, increasing public awareness, institutional support, government support, receiving an award, attracting participation, getting feedback, competing with colleagues, attracting financial resources, increasing social security, increasing social development, making a change, requests from the general public, increasing research partners and building a scientific network, increase the quality of research, and recruiting students. Furthermore, the barriers include researchers’ living in their own world, fear of misunderstanding, fear of misuse of scientific findings, degradation of science, the inefficiency of promotion tools, familiarity with the concept and method of writing lay summaries, lack of time, low readership, unattractive research, lack of required technical infrastructure, lack of sufficient reward, the uncertainty of scientific findings, probability of negative consequences, negative reputation among colleagues, lack of culture to science popularization, and lack of space for publication. "Increasing public awareness" is the key driver for researchers to write lay summaries, and "lack of time" is the most frequent barrier that can be mentioned in this regard.Conclusion: Some drivers and barriers are related to the research itself and others to the researcher, institutions, and society. Probably, the results of this study can help higher education policymakers and funders of research to design solutions to encourage the writing of lay summaries in order to help the general public to take advantage of research findings and scientific results.
Conducting research in humanities sciences in Iran is faces with different barriers, including the small number of researchers, financial resources shortage, weak research infrastructure, etc. ...Adressing these barriers is required for advancement in humanities sciences and exploring these barriers is the first step to address them, properly. The purpose of this study is to identify the key challenges of and barriers to research in the field of humanities in Iran. Several studies have been shed light on challenges of conducting research in humanities in Iran, which contain relevant data. In this research, through a "systematic review", 32 relevant studies (such as theses and dissertations, journal articles, and conference papers) were sampled for fulltext reading and analysis. Collected data were analyzed by coding method and dimensions of barriers were identified. Nearly 200 barriers to research in the humanities have been highlighted in academic literature, which can be summarized into 93 indicators and seven broad dimensions, namley poor social context, weak infrastructure, inefficient organization and management, inappropriate policy-making, incompetent researchers, incompatible rules and regulations, and distinct nature of humanities sciences. Perhaps policy-makers have been played a significant role in emergence of barriers. This study is the first attempt to take a comprehensive view on the barriers and challenges of conducting research in the humanities in Iran. The research policy-makers and decision-makers must be aware of the barriers and challenges that are impactful on research in order to design and implement appropriate and efficient policies and plans. The findings of this study can provide a better understanding of the barriers to reaserch in humanities sciences in Iran.
PurposeStrengthening and improving Scientific and Technical Information (S&Ti) flow in all nations require an effective national S&Ti policy (NS&TiP). The very first step in developing an integrated ...NS&TiP is clarifying its scope and dimensions. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the dimensions of NS&TiP, in the form of an analytical framework, and to show how to apply it.Design/methodology/approachThe current study adopted a qualitative method, called the framework approach, and proposed HeLICAM, a comprehensive framework including different dimensions for NS&TiP. Afterward, Iran's science and technology documents were analyzed based on the proposed framework.FindingsHeLICAM framework includes (1) human resources, (2) laws and regulations, (3) ICT infrastructure, (4) connections, (5) activities and (6) information market. The results obtained from the application of HeLICAM in the analysis of Iran's science and technology policy documents indicated that the various dimensions of NS&TiP have mostly been overlooked. Although several policies have been developed for science and technology in Iran, the efforts have not been comprehensive and effective enough.Originality/valueThis study proposes the normative analytical framework called HeLICAM. The purpose of HeLICAM is to provide a draft of NS&TiP dimensions to policymakers that will be useful in NS&Ti policymaking because this framework helps to answer questions like “what dimensions have been considered in writing the policy document?” and “What it lacks?”, “What are its strengths and weaknesses?”, and “How can it be improved?”Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2020-0493
Purpose – In recent years, a new form metrics for evaluating research and researchers, called Altimetrics has been developed that seeks to track media attention, viewing, downloading, and so on about ...academic works. The key institutions that need to be aware of these emerging metrics are academic libraries that provide researchers with research measurement services. The purpose of this research is to find out how well these libraries are prepared to provide these new services.Design/methodology/approach – To achieve the objectives of the study, a survey method was employed. The statistical population of this study was librarians working in central libraries of universities affiliated to MSRT and MOHME in Tehran (105 librarians). Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire including three sections and 20 items.Findings – Findings indicate that librarians' knowledge and use of altmetrics are not sufficient to respond to users' requests and their readiness to serve in this field is low. Also, there is no significant difference between the knowledge and use of librarians in the two ministries. In addition, most librarians need a workshop on learning altmetrics.Originality/value – This is the first study to find out the extent to which librarians in Iranian libraries are familiar with and utilize altmetrics.Practical implications – librarians' knowledge and use of altmetrics are not sufficient. University librarians need new services for users to be viable and relevant to their communities. The findings of this study are an alarm for them to move quickly to new tools and methods.
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