Identifying and Prioritizing the Barriers to Research: The Case Study Of Research Centers of Ministry of Science, Research and Technology

Moradi, Mahmoud; Dustar, Mohammad; Ghaderifar, Esmaeil; Zanjani, Behnaz

Identifying and Prioritizing the Barriers to Research: The Case Study Of Research Centers of Ministry of Science, Research and Technology

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Abstract

Rresearch centers carry tavariety of research activities to formulate policies based on knowledge, science and technology. However, we haven’t yet seen an enormous growth in the research unit of the Research Centers of Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. The present study identifies and prioritizes the barriers to research activities the researchers at the Research Centers encounter. At first, the barriers and the factors concerned with them are selected based on the literature review (Individual, organizational, environmental and technical barriers). Then, the conceptual model is developed and assessed by using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Finally, we testthe hypotheses by applying one sample T-test and also rankthe identified barriers by using the Friedman Test. Based on the result, all 4 barriers have influence on the conduct of research activities. The barriers based on their importance are, respectively, environmental, individual, organizational and technical. Furthermore, the result indicates that lack of research culture has the greatest impact on the conduct of research.

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