Institutional Research Culture Scale (IRCS): Development and Validation in the context of Universities in Kerala, India

Abstract

Research Culture encompasses the behaviour, values, expectations, attitudes, and norms of our research communities. It influences researchers’ career paths and determines the way that research is conducted and communicated. However, the term research culture remains ambiguous (Hill, 1999) and the tool to assess the research culture is very little and a resurgence is need in the field. The intent of the study is to comprehend the term research culture in the institutions in Kerala, India by developing a scale and validate it. Population of the study comprised of all the faculty members in the universities in Kerala. Sample was selected through multistage cluster sampling technique (Creswell, 2011). Out of the seventeen state universities five mainstream multidisciplinary universities were selected for the study. Four hundred faculty members were finally chosen as sample and the obscure and abstruse samples were avoided. Exploratory factor analysis is used to extract five factors which is quite evolved from the theoretical concepts (Clemena & Acosta, 2007) that intensify the research culture in the institutions. When interpreted, these factors align well with the theories that referred for the study. The results of the study indicated that the dimensions such as, Institutional Culture, Working Conditions, Research Infrastructure, Research Collaboration and Sharing, Institutional Research Policy and Agenda and Research Monitoring and Mentoring were perceived as relatively more influential for promotion of research culture and selected as the major factors for the preparation of the tool.