Research Challenges in the Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences

Identifying the challenges of research activities in the academic atmosphere of the health systems, plays an important role in qualitative and quantitative promotion of research in this era.

Studies investigating the research barriers in the medical universities of Iran were identified through a comprehensive search from national and international databanks such as: Magiran, SID, Pubmed, Google scholar search engine and were selected after investigation of titles, abstracts and full texts. Required information including different research challenges from the viewpoint of financial, organizational, individual, scientific and cultural aspects together with different related factors were extracted from the selected studies. In addition, the results of the review was presented in the committee of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the 8th Iranian academic study area and the opinions of the Committee members were collected by focus group discussion and used for final discussions. Research barriers in the medical universities were associated with different factors especially academic rank, academic degree and field of education.

Research barriers of the Iranian medical Universities and research centers were extracted from 41 eligible studies. According to the results, organizational and finantial challenges were on the top list of research barriers, while scientific and natural barriers were the least challenges. The main challenges among the academic members and research staff were financial, while students were faced mainly with the organizational barriers.

To overcome and manage the research problems, the old research challenges as well as new challenges should be particularly taken into account by the managers and policymakers.