Challenges of Research Performance Evaluation in Iran: A Qualitative Study

Research performance evaluation indicators can be used in research and financial policy-making, as well as the promotion of researchers and universities in a country. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the challenges of research performance evaluation in Iran. Participants in this qualitative study were selected using a purposive sampling method. 11 Out of 21 experts from the two areas of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Medical Education were interviewed face-to-face, by telephone, and WhatsApp social media based on an interview guide. Interviews were analyzed with MaxQDA software version 10. Most of the participants were male (54%), had a Ph.D. degree in library and information science (54%), and had at least four years of research management and scientometric experience (36%). The analysis of the interviews included 143 codes in the form of six main categories and 50 sub-categories. The most critical challenges included a lack of normalization in research evaluation, lack of suitable scientometric training, lack of importance of scientometrics in research management, the necessity to change the scientometricians role, absence of scientometrician in research policy-making, the focus of universities ranking systems on research indicators, the emphasis of universities ranking systems on quantity, the over-focus on quantitative indicators, the incompleteness of scientometric indicators, the lack of proper application of scientometric indicators, the role of scientometricians in improving the research quality, and the need for balanced attention to the quantity and quality of research. Overall, the research performance evaluation in Iran is facing the challenges of globalization of research performance measurement, providing sufficient research infrastructures, the position of scientometrics in research policy, university ranking systems, application of scientometric indicators, and inefficiency of the research management.