A study of factors inhibiting research productivity of Iranian women in ISI

Because in terms of research productivity, performance of women is weaker than men’s, and since little is known on the factors inhibiting academic women’s productivity in Iran, the present article aims to study factors inhibiting research productivity of Iranian women in ISI. To do this, at first, women who have already had published documents indexed in ISI were identified through web of science (WoS). Afterwards, in order to collect their view regarding factors inhibiting women’s research productivity, a researcher-made questionnaire was used. To analyze the collected data, the statistical software SPSS (version 17) was used. Both descriptive (percentage and frequency) and inferential (ANOVA) statistics were employed to reach valid findings. The findings indicate that the most inhibitory factors affecting negatively publishing scholarly articles by Iranian women are ‘Shortcomings in the existing laws’, ‘Stereotypes and beliefs concerning women’, ‘Family work’, ‘Social and cultural contingencies’, ‘Child care’, and ‘Low collaboration with male colleagues’. Finally, some remarks for the improvement of the current condition are highlighted.