The eligibility of scientific evaluation based on the criterion of " published paper" in engineering education of Iran

This paper describes the role of published articles in scientific evaluation of engineering academics in the current circumstances and investigates the existing challenges in qualitatively grading the scientific articles relative to other kinds of research outputs. It also explores the most desirable condition for assigning priorities to quantity or quality of articles comparing to other research outputs and educational activities. To this end, both qualitative and quantitative methods were exploited to achieve the objectives of the paper. The quantitative data were collected using questionnaires and the qualitative data were obtained through interviews. For the survey, the professors and PhD students of engineering faculties of five universities, University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, University of Isfahan, and University of Guilan were considered as the statistical society. The sample consists of 116 professors and 224 students. For the interviews, the 9 distinguished professors were selected. In order to find answers to the main questions of this research, the results have been analyzed, and several recommendations have been offered accordingly among which, paying more attention to quality of education and research in regulations, carrying out purposeful and effective researches in universities, putting more emphasis on quality comparing with the quantity of publications, facilitating and supporting university-industry interactions, effective surveillance on the quality of universities and professors are found to be the main demands of the academics. Among all of the recommendations and solutions, 14 practical and time and cost efficient suggestions are proposed.