Research issues and problems in each locale and country exist in specific contexts. In my own country, research as a national priority lags far behind than expected, keeping in view that today India in the fastest growing economy. On the other hand, China has done amazing in this field. A number of Chinese universities rank in some of the top universities' list, largely due to the fact that their research output is far better as perceived by the comity of scholars.
What are some of the good points and limitations of conducting meaningful research in management, social sciences and other disciplines in your country?
Researchers in Iran have been doing very well in publishing ISI articles. According to attached article, "scientific productivity in Iran has substantially improved over the past decade, with a record of 20610 publications indexed in 2010".
Iran has made considerable advances in science and technology through education and training, despite international sanctions in almost all aspects of research during the past 30 years. Iran's university population swelled from 100,000 in 1979 to 2 million in 2006.
70% of its science and engineering students are women. Iran's scientific progress is reported to be the fastest in the world. Iran has made great strides in different sectors, including aerospace, nuclear science, medical development, as well as stem cell and cloning research.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Iran
What we need is improvement in industry-university relations. The government has already started the promotion and support of knowledge-based companies.
Allocation of a larger percenta of GDP to research and development will certainly speeds up the process.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3732862/
We in subcontinent are quite different people, we just want a lot of money and power and these things are not achieved by research but by hook or by crook
Researchers in Iran have been doing very well in publishing ISI articles. According to attached article, "scientific productivity in Iran has substantially improved over the past decade, with a record of 20610 publications indexed in 2010".
Iran has made considerable advances in science and technology through education and training, despite international sanctions in almost all aspects of research during the past 30 years. Iran's university population swelled from 100,000 in 1979 to 2 million in 2006.
70% of its science and engineering students are women. Iran's scientific progress is reported to be the fastest in the world. Iran has made great strides in different sectors, including aerospace, nuclear science, medical development, as well as stem cell and cloning research.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Iran
What we need is improvement in industry-university relations. The government has already started the promotion and support of knowledge-based companies.
Allocation of a larger percenta of GDP to research and development will certainly speeds up the process.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3732862/
Research in India possibly lags behind or a few possible reasons despite various opportunities for good research:
a) The focus seems to be on acquiring a research qualification rather than conduct meaningful research
b) Insufficient focus on the theoretical back ground behind a research issue
c) Lack of accessibility to rich and authenticate secondary data due to a large geography and population
d) The outcomes of research do not seem to address and provide solutions to real-time problems in either industry or academia.
Once these issues are addressed, the quality of research output from India will occupy better position in international publications.
I am from Indian subcontinent, we are facing serious problems in research,
lack of sufficient funds, especially in traditional Universitities.
After completion of Research Degrees, there is no suitable employment.
These factors leads to no commitment in research.
Further when comparing with yesterday years Research scholars are not involving in full time research work.
Common Troubles of my students are
- Review of literature
- During the process of writing project thesis.
A long story made short as:
[1] One problem is the comparatively low level of research investment — only 0.9% in GDP-which is much less than China( 1.5%) or the US (2.6%) .
[2] There is insufficient scientific research in India's private sector.
[3] Pharmaceutical sector remains dominated by fabrication of generic products rather than original formulations.
[4]A large section of the country's public research is concentrated in national research centres such as the S. N. Bose Center, the Raman Research Institute and the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. So research at universities remains some what neglected.
[5] Through IITs enforce tough selection, and their students are educated to a very high standard, yet their participation to lift a population of 450 million out of poverty needs a priority.
[6] All said, we being one of world’s largest democracy will slowly and steadily come out successfully as we are also word’s youngest nation( appxo. 40% young population).
There are many interventions on India and some on other developing countries, which are quite important. No doubt, Indian realities are very complex, given its diversity. I do not know if we can define the problem in simple terms like: as that of funding as mentioned by Barbara, Niranjan and Mohan; corruption as mentioned by Raja; and students capability as pointed out by Krishnan, Undoubtedly, these points need careful consideration. But, I think, we need to move beyond Ph.D. research if we underscore criticality of research and innovation for economic development of a country. How is Iran's progress in this regard, as made out by Behrouz, so impressive?
What about a large number of academics in public and private universities in developing countries, where research incidence is generally not up to the mark. How can we make them do more research? Shall we wait for the corruption to reduce so as to convince them to do more research? Is there a leadership crisis in these institutions or governance structures need to be changed or more facilities need to be provided? I think, a host of issues need our attention so as to attempt a more holistic answer to this problematic.
There are three main problems: salaries, fundings for projects and influence of politics! Of course, corruption could not be removed from the previous list! Dear @Raja has mentioned it.
I think one of the primary problems in the U.S. is the decreasing size of available research money and the increase in the number of researchers trying to get a part of that money. One of our local university research centers that has made many important discoveries in medicine, including cancer, and has earned much recognition for those breakthroughs was recently told that their budget was going to be cut once again by several million dollars.
The priority research topics in my country Mexico, are most social, which can be solved with appropriate policies in this area; eg Health, Education, Quality of Life, Safety, Environmental Pollution and Combating Corruption.
Research in general has some support, but not required to conduct investigations of high-level and high scientific / technological and social impact. It must be increased at least three times the current GDP (from 0.43% to 1.2%), when the OECD average is 2.4%.
My country (Georgia, former Soviet republic) is in a transition, economically still weak, but society generally values high education and science... Reforms in education and science are underway, I do not know though when these reforms will bring desirable fruits ...
Dear Devi S Saini,
The Indian population 70 % are living in village, The causes of rural poverty are complex They involve, among other things, culture, climate, gender, markets, and public policy. Likewise, the rural poor are quite diverse both in the problems they face and the possible solutions to these problems. This pamphlet examines how rural poverty develops, what accounts for its persistence, and what specific measures can be taken to eliminate or reduce it.
Following problems are there
1. Lack of internet connectivity, They can't reach ResearchGate
2. Our university system is, in many parts, in a state of disrepair...In almost half the districts higher education enrolments are abysmally low, almost two-third of our universities and 90 per cent of our colleges are rated as below average on quality parameters
3. India's higher education system is the world's third largest in terms of students, next to China and the United States. Some institutions of India, such as the Indian Institutes of technology (IITs), have been globally acclaimed for their standard of education.
4.The overall scenario of higher education in India does not match with the global
Quality standards. Hence, there is enough justification for an increased assessment of the Quality of the country’s educational institutions.
5.Lack of sufficient funds.
6. Unemployed after completion of PhD.
7. Population problems.
8. Political problems.
Regards,
Prem Baboo
At the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, they published the booklet that introduces grant-supported projects newly selected in FY 2015, particularly relatively large-scale, highly appraised projects funded under the categories “Specially Promoted Research” and “Scientific Research” and projects under “Scientific Research on Innovative Areas)” aimed at pioneering new scientific frontiers by groups of researchers. The full-text of the booklet can be downloaded from the Web page below, and I wish that the booklet would be useful for the RG colleagues interested in the present question.
https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/12_frontline/index.html
Bureaucratic attitude of the Universities and research organizations is major problem for scholars.
There are lots of problems for scholars , either in state universities or in central univers ities. However , financially central universities are better equipped to produce quality work . But , Dr Kundu said , the strong interference of bureocratic set-up in universities and research organisations is the major hurdle , besides visionary teachers of eminence . Infact , there are basic drawbacks in our education system and policies as well , that most of the time put us in doldrum , with few exceptions.
I believe some researchers face troubles with the statistical analysis. I encourage researchers to go and publish in Thomas ISI or Scopus.
I agree with Debi S.Saini that research in India as a national priority is lagging behind other nations . The reason is that in school , creativity is not encouraged & only memory is vital to pass examinations . Parents insist that their children should look for a secure job with a good salary & the enormous talent of the younger generation is wasted . Universities are more concerned about teaching & giving degrees than rather than encouraging research . It is the mindset which does not encourage creativity & hence research suffers . There are excellent Institutes of research in India , but they are very few in number for the size of the population . There is no pressure on the universities to improve their ranking . Unless there is a realization that science & research is essential to improve the lives of the citizens & creativity is encouraged from young age in school , it is not possible to become a great scientific nation .
Dear @Debi, I have had some threads that treat the issue which you have raised. One was obout caste employment, the other about politics' influence in academia.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_have_experience_with_caste_employment_at_Universities_in_spite_of_the_law
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Have_politics_in_any_way_affected_your_career_advancement_whether_in_research_or_in_education
Though successful research is frequently attributed to individual researchers or research teams, we all know that such success is determined by more than individual brilliance, hard work, and team competencies. It turns also on such factors as the nature and quality of the research environment generally, the facilities and other means at the disposal of the researchers, and prior or contemporaneous work by other researchers in related fields.
http://dfcentre.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/African_universities_and_the_challenges_of_research_capacity_building.pdf
Although I am not based in my country (Nigeria) currently, the country lags behind in all areas. The government and private sector do not usually fund research. Researchers in my country do not have access to subscription journals, many university (if not all) do not have functional internet facility. Salaries are too poor to help research-minded scholars to fund their research and the list goes on. It is frustrating to work in such an environment.
In a recent article in the Lancet ( May 28 , 2016 ) ' Poor research output from Indian medical schools ' , it has been stated that 332 of the 579 medical colleges ( 57% ) in India had no research publications for the past 10 years ( 2005 - 2014 ) . The reasons given were absence of focus on research in Indian medical schools & poor infrastructure . Only 4% of the medical schools produced 40% of the research papers . Experts feel that neglect of research has serious implications for health challenges in India . This is just to highlight on my previous comments that research is not a priority in most Institutes .
I agree with Subhash's point. University bureaucracies are often a major hindrance in university research. They hate speed. That is a problem in itself that needs to be attended through appropriate training, leadership and motivation. Their natural tendency is to control and say NO. Shivkumar's data is no doubt alarming; interestingly, that is the situation in all areas in India. In my last institution, several full professors did not have even one publication to their credit; not even a book review. But the situation is improving now on the faculty front.
Both local and international funding opportunities for research seem numerous but often skewed towards few research interests, few study locations, few age groups, etc. The funds are therefore inaccessible by majority of researchers.
In Italy, where I was born and work, funding is a major problem, especially for humanities. Universities are profit-based and independent research is more and more difficult. Humanities are believed to be useless in terms of profit making. Neoliberal policies prevent free thought and independent research. However, the most important discoveries of the XX centuries were the result of basic or pure research that is aimed at improving the understanding of natural phenomena. Basic research is fundamental for the advancement of mankind, but it seems less and less important in a profit-based society. If immediate profit is not detectable, research is not funded in my country. But immediate usefulness does not equate with long-term benefits.
Dear colleague,
Yes, the keys for research Issues and problems in our country scholars are:
economy and its sustainable development;
combating of corruption;
the establishment of education and culture in that time demands today, giving priority to professional education;
filling conditions and improvement of services and equipment with modern technology in health;
environment and its protection;
the intensive development of agriculture, and especially orchards and vineyards;
maintenance of land, keeping control of erosion, etc .;
breeding animal husbandry, especially the sheep, Given and indigenous breeds;
conservation of flora and fauna, protection and management of forests and pastures;
sustainable development of tourism and ecotourism, all these data above, given by objective verifiable indicators.
Thus, each issue has its own problems, which are not at the levels and amounts requested ...
Dear Debi,
it's a very difficult situation with science, education, culture in our country. As we know, bureaucratic corruption is able to exploit a talent only, but it wiil never allow a talent to be realized.Nevertheless, our scientists, teachers, specialists in all fields publish their works.I admire their courageous acts and enthusiasm of our publisher's houses! I'm sure, intelligent and creative human beings can survive in every situation! For ex, in SSRN by Maxim Kotsemir you can find a lot of interesting social works.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1989392
Dear All, Most of the time the aim of education/research is to develop the technology in todays industrial world. Most of the academics projects also roam around it as well. Technology is collection of techniques, technique is way to do/perform work, purely depend on time, distance, resources & energy conservation on a most suitable design. So such acquired creativity is highly dependent on collective efforts, and collective efforts have deep down links with behavior, trend, norms of mutual interaction, which varies even human to human basis. Problem is not with resources all the time, but with technique to utilize resources including human resource as well. Corruption, favoritism, lack of cooperation, negative competitions, useless criticism, information control etc gave birth to acquired-creativity-resistance based announced/unannounced norms, which ultimately evolute in to policy matters. And the unaccountable, unchallengeable, immuneable authoritativeness make the Patterns fixed. Power Politics then carry on it generation after generation. So Institution Development Approach with proper check & balance is the key to solve the issues and best utilization of any available resources rather than to Personality Development as in Asian countries especially. And also the Funding/ Donner agencies can play a major corrective role by establishing such approach to make sure that the applicant organizations really are/remain free from such "None Ethical Defects" by MEAL approach, off the record survey, surprise visits etc, . Second thing is that there should be some independent "Researchers Assistance Centers" free from biasness and political influence on national basis in every country, which not only can suggest solutions to researcher in confidential ways regarding their described problems into their organizations but also establish a data base for trend analysis and to suggest the stakeholders of research/education for the needs and demand to eradicate such None Ethical Norms. The problem of researchers can be better understand by the researcher either its mental, social, material etc. & a researcher can better to get a workable advise & unnoticeable worst manipulation at the same time from a researcher rather than none researcher member of society, organization, public etc. Hope such system will find helping. On experimental basis such model can get test in Universities, if good result then with the time it will get enhance automatically. For sure the results will be beneficial.......!!
Dear sir,
Research and findings are going to useful for public whether the country is poor or rich and irrespective of social, education, political and economical factors.
normally it may differs with science and technology to management issues.
once it may be new thing or extension of existing one, or may be with different parameters and circumstances.
this again varies to country to country, because many factors are different. again in country region to region and state to state, district to district.
In addition to my earlier comments , research is a highly time consuming exercise . We need to be extremely patient with research activities . Unfortunately , it does not happen in reality, especially when progress of research is to be monitored by non-academic person . Probably , this could be one of the the reasons , besides weaker infrastuctural /HRD facilities , some countries prefer to import a technology , instead of investing such a huge money in research and development .
“Highly organized research is guaranteed to produce nothing new.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune
Dear colleagues,
I just received a message from our colleague, where he suggested me that the answer provided by extended more to the question: What are the key research Issues and problems for scholars in your country? Dear our colleague, my answer is not absolute, because ourselves are not any, then are relative wherever we are, and in the same time, this answer was for my country, not for others ... For others, themselves know, my answer is to be known as you, our colleagues and in particular with our colleague, who has made the question ... anyway ... this short ... my personal greeting is: I wish you to pass on well with all!
A very important point is the systemic influence. There is a paradigm shift in the global economic environment through neo-liberalism. Basically, it underscores profit-orientation; and more so of short-term orientation and not quite in a sustainable sense. Esoteric terms like freedom of thought and innovating basic ideas are getting relegated. This is likely to impact research future in all areas in the morrow. Some inputs from colleagues have hinted in this direction. So issues and solutions have to be found within the framework of these constraints.
I am of the opinion that research in engineering, management, medicine and/or social sciences may not be world-class and/or leading in South Africa!
Period!
In Algeria, the research received during the last decade a significant budget for the opening of many research laboratories and national research projects. The results are not up to the financial challenge because you have to be honest to say that many laboratories do not have a scientific output in proportion to the colossal sums swallowed up in the equipment needs. It also requires that the mentality of our researchers is evolving positively in the way of a modern society that we want to conceive.
Whether you are a current student or a doctoral graduate, conducting research is an integral part of being a scholar-practitioner with the skills and credibility to effect social change. Fortunately, many of the research challenges you will face—from choosing a topic, to finding study participants, to staying sane throughout the process, and every step in between—have already been addressed by members of the Walden community. Here, they share their insights on how to overcome seven top research challenges.
https://www.waldenu.edu/about/newsroom/publications/articles/2010/01-research-challenges
From the responses, it seems that the following are common in many countries:
- Lack of sufficient funds, especially for social sciences
- Bearucracy
In Egypt, many problems especially, academic freedoms, lack of fund, data access, and impact of research on industry and society I general
In my opinion, problems we are facing regarding research is that ...
1. Lack of sufficient funds,
2. Biasness of journals,
3. Project funding problems, especially for Mathematics scholars
4. Lack of resources also..
I'm sure there are many more strengths and limitations in research issues in Canada than the ones I list here but the ones that I can think of at this moment are as follows:
Strengths
Limitations
Great topic. As we know, research is the key issue for the development and growth of any society. As far as the research environment in Saudi Arabia is concerned, the govt has pushed in recent past a lot by providing fund and right ambiance creating infrastructural support. This has resulted into some of the university hiring best teachers and researchers and rewarding them in a big way. But the research culture and environment needs to be more deepened and this process needs to be institutionalized. It needs creating a continuous push in that regard, and slowly, the quality of the research will improve. It will improve with time, but my business school has improved a lot and we have come a long way from few ISI publication to 20+ publications in 2017.
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