An Investigation of Research and Knowledge Production Obstacles and Challenges in Medical Universities

This paper aims to study the views of Shiraz University’s Faculty members on the research obstacles and challenges. In order to describe possible affecting obstacles, 227 out of 550 faculties working at the university, were selected based on the cluster sampling technique and were asked to complete a questionnaire which consisted 75 questions on the bases of 4 items’ Liker Scale. The questionnaire covers ten possible areas of obstacles but in addition to the closed items, the questionnaire included three open ended questions about the relevant agendas. The findings revealed that all predicted obstacles have a negative role on staffs’ research performance. The results also showed while the financial obstacles were considered as the most dominant factor affecting on the research but political obstacles perceived as a factor which has the less important impact respectively.