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A study of factors inhibiting research productivity of Iranian women in ISI

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Abstract

Because in terms of research productivity, performance of women is weaker than men’s, and since little is known on the factors inhibiting academic women’s productivity in Iran, the present article aims to study factors inhibiting research productivity of Iranian women in ISI. To do this, at first, women who have already had published documents indexed in ISI were identified through web of science (WoS). Afterwards, in order to collect their view regarding factors inhibiting women’s research productivity, a researcher-made questionnaire was used. To analyze the collected data, the statistical software SPSS (version 17) was used. Both descriptive (percentage and frequency) and inferential (ANOVA) statistics were employed to reach valid findings. The findings indicate that the most inhibitory factors affecting negatively publishing scholarly articles by Iranian women are ‘Shortcomings in the existing laws’, ‘Stereotypes and beliefs concerning women’, ‘Family work’, ‘Social and cultural contingencies’, ‘Child care’, and ‘Low collaboration with male colleagues’. Finally, some remarks for the improvement of the current condition are highlighted.

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Notes

  1. www.iauh.ac.ir.

  2. www.nrisp.ac.ir.

  3. http://www.farabiaward.ir/.

  4. http://www.khwarizmi.ir/.

  5. Information Literacy, i.e. accessing information efficiently and effectively, evaluating information critically and competently, and using information effectively and creatively (Isfandyari-Moghaddam and Kashi-Nahanji 2011, p. 628).

  6. With regard to ‘gender’ or sex differences, there are some studies that report no or low gender effect on publishing. For example, Xie and Shauman (1999, p. 863) highlighted that there is very little direct effect of sex on research productivity. And, Stack (2004, p. 912) in a study concluded that gender remained a significant predictor of productivity after children and numerous other covariates of research productivity were included in the analysis. This needs much investigation within the context of developing countries like Iran.

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Hamedan Branch, Islamic Azad University (Iran) as well as the authorities and research staff of National Research Institute for Science Policy for their kind cooperation. The authors would like to express special thanks to the respected reviewers of the article for their helpful consultancy and useful comments. Dr. Lotfollah Karimi is also appreciated for his cooperation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Library and Information Studies, Islamic Azad University, Hamedan Branch, Hamedan, Iran

    Alireza Isfandyari-Moghaddam

  2. Department of Library and Information Science, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Hasanzadeh

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  1. Alireza Isfandyari-Moghaddam
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Correspondence to Alireza Isfandyari-Moghaddam.

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Isfandyari-Moghaddam, A., Hasanzadeh, M. A study of factors inhibiting research productivity of Iranian women in ISI. Scientometrics 95, 797–815 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-0980-1

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