Skip to main content
Log in

Evaluating the quality of scientific research papers in entrepreneurship

  • Published:
Quality & Quantity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The study aims to find the quality of research papers published in the domain of entrepreneurship in India. This study covers 100 research papers. A standardized measurement tool developed by the earlier researchers was used to evaluate the research quality. The data compiled using the measurement tool were analyzed with the support of the SPSS. The statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, Friedman’s test, factor analysis, two-sample ‘t’ test, and ANOVA are applied to analyze the data. The study findings reported that the quality of research papers published in the field of entrepreneurship is not up to the quality standards. The quality of multiple-author papers is better than single-author papers. Similarly, the quality of papers published by foreign authors is comparatively better than Indian authors. Further, the quality of papers published with the combination of foreign and Indian authors is substantially good. The quality of papers published in foreign journals is higher as compared with Indian journals. Further, the standard of papers published under the qualitative approach was comparatively better than the quantitative approach. The authors developed a Conceptual Model of Process and Product of Research (YOVA model). This model clearly shows that the whole research process yields six levels of research products. The study recommended that the researchers need to go for international collaborations to improve the quality of the publication. The funding agencies, higher learning institutions and research institutions should focus on enhancing research infrastructure. The study examined the validity of research articles searched by novice researchers in India in Google by using keywords related to entrepreneurship and, as such this non-focused approach is a big impediment to quality research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Source: Developed by Authors

Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abdel Moneim Aly: Quality of medical journals with special reference to the Eastern Mediterranean health journal. Saudi Med. J. 25(1), 18–20 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  • Adams, J.: The fourth age of research. Nature 497, 557–560 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akkerman, S., Admiraal, W., Brekelmans, M., Oost, H.: Auditing quality of research in social sciences. Qual. Quant. 42(2), 257–274 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aphinyanaphongs, Y., Tsamardinos, I., Statnikov, A., Hardin, D., Aliferis, C.F.: Text categorization models for high-quality article retrieval in internal medicine. J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc. 12(2), 207–217 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonaccorsi, A., Cicero, T., Ferrara, A., Malgarini. M., (2015). Journal Ratings as Predictors of Articles Quality in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences: An Analysis based on the Italian Research Evaluation Exercise. F1000Research, 4, 196.

  • Bornmann, L., Schier, H., Marx, W., Daniel, H.-D.: Does the h index for assessing single publications really work? a case study on papers published in chemistry”. Scientometrics 89, 835–843 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bornmann, L., Schier, H., Marx, W., Daniel, H.-D.: What factors determine citation counts of publications in chemistry besides their quality? J. Informet. 6, 11–18 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bornmanna, L., Daniel, H.-D.: The Citation speed index: a useful bibliometric indicator to add to the h index. J. Informet. 4, 444–446 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chawla, R., Gupta, M., Anand, N.: Ranking of Indian journals with popular international journals: a comparative study. Int. J. Sci. Technol. Res. 9(3), 72–81 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  • Cho, M.K., Bero, L.A.: Instruments for assessing the quality of drug studies published in the medical literature. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 272, 101–104 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Djulbegovic, B., Lacevic, M., Cantor, A.: The uncertainty principle and industry-sponsored research. Lancet 356, 635–638 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Durieux, V., Gevenois, P.A.: Bibliometric indicators: quality measurements of scientific publication. Radiology 255(2), 342–351 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghazavi, R., Taheri, B., Ashrafi-rizi, H.: Article quality indicator: proposing a new indicator for measuring article quality in scopus and web of science. J. Sci. Res. 8(1), 9–17 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, P., Kaur, G., Sharma, B., Shah, D., Choudhury, P.: What is submitted and what gets accepted in Indian Pediatrics: analysis of submissions, review process, decision making, and criteria for rejection. Indian Pediatr. 43(6), 479–489 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, R., Tiwari, R., Mueen Ammed, K.K.: Dengue research in India: a scientometric analysis of publications - 2003–12. Int. J. Med. Public Health 4(1), 1–9 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hair, J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E.: Multivariate Data Analysis, 7th edn. Pearson Education, U.K (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hair, H.H., Jr, Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E., & Tatham, R.L., (2009). Multivariate Data Analysis. London, U.K: Pearson Education.

  • Hudson, J.: Trends in multi-authored papers in economics. J. Econom. Perspect. 10(3), 153–158 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inayatullah, S., Fitzgerald, J.: Gene Discourses: politics, culture, law, and futures. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 52(2–3), 161–183 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • James, J.B., Vincent, C.B.: Perception of journal quality. Account. Rev. 49(2), 360–362 (1974)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawani, S.M.: Some bibliometric correlates of quality in scientific research. Scientometrics 9, 13–25 (1986)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, E.Y., Liao, C.H., Yen, H.R.: Co-authorship networks and research impact: a social capital perspective. Res. Policy 42(9), 1515–1530 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Low, W.Y., Ng, K.H., Kabir, M.A., et al.: Trend and impact of international collaboration in clinical medicine papers published in Malaysia. Scientometrics 98, 1521–1533 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mårtensson, P., Fors, U., Wallin, S.-B., Zander, U., Nilsson, G.H.: Evaluating research: a multidisciplinary approach to assessing research practice and quality. Res. Policy 45, 593–603 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mattsson, P., Laget, P., Nilsson, A., & Sundberg, C.J. (2008). Intra-EU Vs. Extra-EU Scientific Co-publication Patterns in EU. Scientometrics, 75(3), 555–574.

  • Mays, N., & Pope, C. (2000). Quality in Qualitative Health Research. In: Mays, N., and Pope, C. Qualitative Research in Health Care. 2nd ed. London: BMJ Books.

  • Michael, J. Cuellar, Duane, P. Truex, & Hirotoshi Takeda. (2016). Can we trust journal ranking to assess article quality? Proceedings of the Twenty-second Americas Conference on Information Systems, San Diego. 1–11.

  • Nanjundaiah & Dinesh, K.S. : Ranking and comparison of journals published in india with special reference to humanities and social sciences. Int. J. Inf. Dissem. Technol. 6(4), 251–257 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  • National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research - NCDDR. (2002). A Technical Brief: What Are the Standards for Quality Research? Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

  • Popay, R., Rogers, A., Williams, G.: Rationale and standards for the systematic review of qualitative literature in health services research. Qual Health Research 8, 341–351 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ram, S.: A quantitative assessment of “chikungunya” research publications, 2004–2013. Trop. J. Med. Res. 19, 52–60 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • RAND. (2010). Technical Report: Standards for High-Quality Research and Analysis. RAND Corporation.

  • Salimi, N.: Quality assessment of scientific outputs using the BWM. Scientometrics 112, 195–213 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seglen, P.O.: Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating research? BMJ 314(7079), 497 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sendhilkumar, S., Elakkiya, E., Mahalakshmi, G.S.: Citation semantic based approaches to identify article quality. Comp Sci Inform Technol 1, 411–420 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheikh Tariq Mahmood: Factors affecting the quality of research in education: student’s perceptions. J. Educ. Pract. 2(11 & 12), 34–39 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  • Shewfelt, R.L.: What is quality? Postharvest Biol. Technol. 15, 197–200 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stokols, D., Harvey, R., Gress, J., Fuqua, J., Phillips, K.: In vivo studies of transdisciplinary scientific collaboration: lessons learned and implications for active living research. Am. J. Prev. Med. 28(2), 202–213 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moyses Szklo. (2006). Quality of Scientific Articles. Rev Saúde Pública, 40 (N Esp), 30–35.

  • Timmer, A., Sutherland, L.R., Hilsden, R.J.: Development and evaluation of a quality score for abstracts. BMC Med Res Methodol 3, 2 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Victor, B.G., Hodge, D.R., Perron, B.E., Vaughn, M.G., Salas-Wright, C.P.: The rise of co-authorship in social work scholarship: a longitudinal study of collaboration and article quality, 1989–2013. Br. J. Soc. Work. 47(8), 1–16 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, J., Lechner, C., Kellermanns, F.W.: Knowledge transfer between and within alliance partners: private versus collective benefits of social capital. J. Bus. Res. 60(7), 698–710 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wasko, M.M., Faraj, S.: Why should I share? examining social capital and knowledge contribution in electronic networks of practice. MIS Q. 29(1), 35–57 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Welch, C., Piekkari, R.: How should we (not) judge the ‘quality’ of qualitative research? a re-assessment of current evaluative criteria in international business. J. World Bus. 52(5), 714–725 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yokuş, G., Akdaği, H.: Identifying quality criteria of a scientific research adopted by academic community: a case study. Int. J. Eurasia Soc. Sci. 10(36), 516–527 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zuber-Skerritt, O., Fletcher, M.: The quality of an action research thesis in the social sciences. Qual. Assur. Educ. 15(4), 413–436 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

No funding received.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vasan M..

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yoganandan, G., Vasan, M. Evaluating the quality of scientific research papers in entrepreneurship. Qual Quant 56, 3013–3027 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01254-z

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01254-z

Keywords

Navigation