obstacles to research activities: a survey of faculty member’s view at urmia university of medical sciences in 2010

obstacles to research activities: a survey of faculty member’s view at urmia university of medical sciences in 2010     mir ghaffarzadeh sh [1] , nazari h [2] , motazakker m [3]     received: 18 aug, 2012 accepted: 15 nov , 2012     abstract   background & aims : this study uncovers the obstacles to research activities by studying the views of faculty members at urmia university of medical sciences in 2010.   materials & methods : this descriptive cross-sectional study is based on a researcher-designed self-completed anonymous questionnaire. 117 randomly selected faculty members reported their views on research activities and obstacles including: individual, organizational, intra-organizational, and natural aspects. we used likert scale and spss descriptive tests to analyze collected data.   result : there were 39 (3/33%) female and 78 (7/66%) were male subjects. 63 subjects from the school of medicine, 28 from nursing and midwifery, and 26 from paramedics and healthcare services. in the past three years 82.9% of the university’s faculty members have participated in at least one research project and published or are about to publish their study in a domestic or an international journal. 92.3% of them have joined one or more domestic or international congress. according to them, the main obstacles to research at the university include: low budgets of research projects, lack of the balance between teaching and researching hours, infectivity of results in decision making, planning and management at national level, lack of professionalism, lack of the research result application, lack of the research prioritization based on needs assessment, long process of research proposal approval.   conclusion: research activities, from the standpoint of faculty members, seem to be influenced by various obstacles. reviewing laws and regulation, designing solution providing systems, applying coherent plans for empowerment and motivating researchers to favor research activities can be effective in addressing these obstacles.   key words: obstacles, research, faculty member     address: urmia university of medical sciences, vice chancellor for research and technology   tel: (+98)4412231930   email : [email protected]   [1] phd in anthropology, urmia university of medical sciences   [2] ma student management information systems, department of management, islamic azad university, mahabad branch   [3] assistant professor of virology, urmia university of medical science, urmia, iran (corresponding author)*