Quantitative Pathology of University Theses Written on the Basis of Manuscripts

Nowadays, academic research is one of the topics that can have the potential to improve knowledge. Meanwhile, archival studies can be considered as among the areas that have not been given serious attention proportionate to their excellent research capacities. Using manuscripts, as one of the prominent scientific sources in science, is considered with different influence coefficients in each field. In the meantime, Islamic manuscripts have been the subject of relatively extensive research due to their content and apparent values. The present research is intended to answer a multi-faceted question as to how many of the university theses written in Iran have been based on manuscripts; the geographical dispersion (city-university); the field dispersion; the level of study dispersion and its chronology; in what way and, in the meantime, what approaches have prevailed in the use of manuscripts?

Research/Method Approach: 

The method of this research is descriptive-analytical and the sampling is conducted on the basis of two databases approved by the Ministry of Science and academic and research centers (IranDoc and National Library).

The findings indicate that 135 universities in 58 cities have undertaken to write 2707 theses, among which Tehran is ranked at the top with 22 centers. The fields benefiting from the manuscripts of 32 fields and Persian language and literature with 1160 theses have a noticeable distance from other fields. 2236 theses belong to the master's level and 471 theses belong to the doctoral level. From 1333 Sh/1954 AD to the fall of 1401 Sh/2022 AD, writing the thesis has annually undergone a significant difference, as one can refer to 1399 Sh/2020 AD with 246 theses and the 10 years, in which no theses were written focusing on manuscripts.