Elevating academic research capability: A study from the perspective of humanities and social science teachers in higher education in Taiwan

Quality and quantity of published academic papers have been considered one of the most important parameters of evaluating performances of academics as well as rating prestige of each institution at large. While embracing traditional humanities traits and value of social concern, the teachers in fields of humanities and social science (HSS) have no alternatives other than elevating their academic research capability in order to sustain their competitive edge in this global trend. The issue as to what the HSS teachers in Taiwan could do to overcome hurdles of doing research while trying to boost their own research capability and get their papers published in international academic arena is worthy of concern. This present paper aims at identifying research difficulties of the HSS teachers in general universities and exploring ways to elevate their research capacity. A 5-Likert scale questionnaire survey with statistical analyses was adopted. Forty-seven teachers from eight HSS fields in two general universities participated in the survey. A cross-sectional investigation into whether and how demographical variables influence subjects’ perceptions of these two enquired issues was also undertaken. The main findings are: (1) Extrinsic difficulties play a more important role than intrinsic ones. (2) Insufficient library resources and manpower to assist in doing research form the biggest obstacles to elevating their academic research capability, followed by want of research resources. (3) Intrinsic approaches are considered more efficient than the extrinsic to increasing their research capability. (4) It is imperative to build up a HSS center responsible for collating, coordinating and circulating literature related to HSS. (5) Providing teachers with grant-in-aids to do academic research is a practical way to stimulate teachers’ research productivity. The significance of this study provides a deep understanding of what difficulties, intrinsic and extrinsic, that HSS faculty in general universities in Taiwan confront, as opposed to that in their technological counterparts, and implications as to how to help elevate their research capability.