Designing an Innovative Interpretive-Structural Modeling for Measuring the Quality of Futurological Researches

Futures studies as a new and influential area of decision-making is considered a distinct from public policy and strategic sciences; so, in this area, it requires clear and concise criteria for accurate identification of research addressed as much as possible in this research. The present study seeks to extract the key elements of the quality of researches of futures studies in order to provide a reliable framework for evaluating the quality of futures studies. After documentary studies and background research in this field, ten real experts and activists in field of futures studies were interviewed. In the first step of the research, after interviewing 10 eligible subjects and analyzing the interview through content analysis method, 135 basic themes were extracted, and finally ten organizer themes were obtained. In the second step, using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) technique, using MATLAB software, the position, the amount of importance, influence and effectiveness (dependency) of the extracted elements were presented at five levels. The recruitment and networking of experts had the most influence, and creating and prescribing alternative futures and creating intercultural knowledge, participation, and stakeholder satisfaction had the least influence.