Identifying and Evaluating the Critical Success Factors for Academic Information Management and Evaluation Centers: The Case of Iran

Abstract Identifying the factors affecting the success of academic information management and evaluation centers is one of the most important studies on how its results can increase the productivity of these centers. This research attempts to investigate the effect of five critical success factors for three centers of academic information management and evaluation in Iran as a developing country. These centers play a key role in the management and evaluation of theses, research projects, papers, and patents nationally. Semi-structured interviews, studies of literature, and providing questionnaires have been used to collect the material for the research. The research population was selected using purposive sampling and consists of managers and all the employees in the three centers who had at least a master’s degree. Their viewpoints were surveyed and the data was analyzed using ANOVA, Scheffe, and Pearson’s correlation test. The findings affirm that “management stability” makes it possible to perform long-term plans in these centers. However, “independency” acts as a factor to strike the balance between responsibilities and authorities, “manager’s speciality” improves the plans and performances in a specific and professional way, “information technology” reduces the expenses and facilitates the presentation of faster services, and finally “distance from authorities” influences the speed of reporting and providing facilities. The results show each of these five factors, not only independently but also together and as a whole, affects the success of these kinds of centers. Moreover, while confirming the correlation between these factors, it was revealed which of these factors has a greater impact on their success.