Geography

Geography

Evaluation of the research position of the Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Kharazmi University in Iranian universities

Document Type : Research extracted From projects

Authors
1 Associate Professor of Geography and Rural Planning, Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Ph.D. Department of Human Geography, Faculty of Geography, Khwarazmi University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Universities are widely recognized as one of the most important components of the education system and key institutions shaping the past and future of the world. The dissemination of knowledge is essential for elevating the level of education in universities, and as a result, standardizing higher education systems with an emphasis on constructive interaction in international relations, advanced knowledge, scientific and technological production, and reliance on social capital. Therefore, the assessment of sciences is a fundamental solution for promoting the scientific level of university centers. Scientometrics can be defined as the quantitative and, to some extent, qualitative analysis of the process of producing, distributing, and utilizing scientific information, as well as the factors affecting it. This includes describing, explaining, and predicting this process for the purpose of planning, policymaking, excellence, awareness, and scientific and research foresight in individual, group, organizational, and international dimensions. In this context, Kharazmi University, with a history of over a century, has always been a focus of scientific attention in the country and the world. Therefore, English journals extracted by the Scimago website and under the supervision of the Elsevier Institution, using the Scopus database, have assessed the overall status of Kharazmi University based on only journal indicators over a 13-year period until 2021, as follows.
Methodology
The present research method is both quantitative and qualitative, encompassing a sequential and simultaneous mixed-methods approach. In this design, a sequential mixed-methods approach was employed, where the quantitative method was used first, followed by the qualitative method to complement the research process. Therefore, according to the defined research questions, suitable research indicators were identified through a collective discourse with experts in this field, including experts from the research department of Kharazmi University and the deanships and faculties of geography. Overall, 15 indicators were selected for research activities. However, since access to information resources and scientific websites is an important principle of this activity, this was planned in a way that the data were mostly extracted from accessible and evaluable web resources, which could be analyzed using quantitative methods, and thus, a basis for comparing faculties and geography groups with the obtained resources was provided. Therefore, in the end, 6 indicators were determined based on the following table, including the per capita number of publications in reputable English journals, the number of citations to published articles, the per capita number of domestic publications, the number of printed books by geography centers, the number of faculty or geography group journals, and the scientific credibility of faculty journals. This endeavor has led to the indicators being standardized appropriately. In this regard, relying on scientific data production centers such as Web of Science, Scopus, ISC, etc, information was collected.
 
Results and Discussion
The research findings need to be mentioned that most similar works only used one or two indicators for ranking, while this research project has set several indicators as the criteria for its quantitative evaluation. Due to the data extraction from some international websites, it was necessary to accurately list the names of the faculty members one by one. By referring to scientific references and websites, documents related to each member were separately extracted. Given the nature of the work and the number of indicators, this process was very time-consuming. Due to confidentiality and limitations, it is not possible to provide a table for this section. After extracting the data based on the quantitative indicators of the project, a per capita method was used to reduce the evaluation error. Accordingly, the number of research activities performed at that Geography center, whether it is a faculty or educational group, is the criterion of assessment. An example of this is shown in the following table.   In the world, ranking of humanities fields is not given much attention, as the criteria for these rankings often do not include these sciences. For example, receiving the Nobel Prize in humanities fields is more like a joke! To change this rule, more appropriate actions are needed. Gaining knowledge about the popularity of departments as scientific determinants, models of human knowledge, and the foundation of nourishing sciences is very important. Nowadays, this process has been facilitated, and with the existence of many scientific websites, scientific evaluations are accessible. Therefore, the field of geography sciences needs evaluation. As research findings show, despite the existence of appropriate criteria for research activities, shortcomings are also observed. Prioritizing the opinions of interviewees (as described in the research method) can be effective in reinforcing the positive factors and reducing the negative factors in improving the scientific status of the Department of Geography. It is necessary to conduct fundamental reviews in this regard.
 
Conclusion
In this study, the results and achievements are briefly summarized based on the scientific research conducted to evaluate the position of academic institutions. Typically, a single criterion based on the publication of scientific articles has been used to evaluate the position of academic centers. However, in this study, several evaluation criteria for research activities of academic departments were developed with the help of statisticians. A total of six evaluation criteria were used, indicating the multidimensional approach of this research. The criteria were based on established valuation methods that could extract information from several reputable scientific websites such as Scopus and other online databases. One of the distinguishing features of this scientific approach was the simultaneous use of quantitative and qualitative methods. In addition to determining the position of the Kharazmi University Department of Geography based on quantitative data, the strengths, weaknesses, and reasons for achieving this position were qualitatively analyzed. In this regard, in response to the first question of the research, based on the scale of the survey conducted among 7 faculties or scientific groups of geography in the country that had three criteria determined by faculty members, teaching groups and having a doctorate degree.
Keywords

Subjects


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