International Scientometric Systems: A Study of Acceptance Management in Academic Communities

The reluctance of university members to enter their information in International Scientometric Systems (ISSs) is counterproductive behavior for human resource management for international university rankings. The explicit goal of this research was to identify the necessary conditions for ISSs acceptance management in an Iranian academic community. To identify factors affecting the acceptance of ISSs and explore members’ attitudes towards them after a focused literature review, user feedback in training classes of ISSs was recorded through the researcher's participation during two semesters. This information was placed as components of a self-made questionnaire after multiple codings based on grand theory.  Then, a self-made questionnaire technique was used to investigate correlations between these factors. Snowball sampling collected data from 86 expert users of this system, and the hypotheses were tested.  In entering information in ISSs, experience of using ISSs, facilitating conditions, expected effort, and expected performance were identified. Finally, the relationships of these variables were presented based on the path analysis model. The results showed that usefulness, expected effort, experience, and facilitating conditions effectively use the systems through the willingness to use ISSs. However, the members were unwilling to use ISSs because they were not well justified about the micro and macro goals of the university ranking systems. Completing information in these diverse systems is considered time-consuming and repetitive. The existing rules for each system are considered cumbersome. Access to these systems' cookies to their personal information is not considered safe and desirable. The results' significance, implications, and limitations have also been deliberated for further research.