Difficulties of Publishing in Peer-Reviewed and Indexed Journals Among Faculty Members at Damascus University from Their Perspective

Abstract

The current study aimed to identify the difficulties of publishing in peer-reviewed and indexed journals faced by faculty members at Damascus University, from their perspective. It also examined the impact of several variables, including gender and academic specialization.

A descriptive approach was adopted, and a questionnaire was used as the research tool in 2024. The questionnaire consisted of three domains of difficulties: scholarly publishing channels, issues related to faculty researchers, and institutional environment challenges, encompassing a total of 41 items. The research sample comprised 194 faculty members (both academic and technical) from various specializations at Damascus University.

The results revealed that the overall degree of difficulties was high, with a total percentage of 72.2% across all domains. The difficulties related to peer-reviewed and indexed journals were rated the highest at 75.6%, followed by institutional environment challenges at 75%. Difficulties related to faculty members themselves were rated moderate, at 65.2%.

The findings also indicated statistically significant differences attributable to the gender variable, specifically in the challenges related to peer-reviewed and indexed journals, as well as the overall difficulty score, favoring female faculty members. However, no statistically significant differences were observed in difficulties related to researchers or the institutional environment.

Furthermore, no statistically significant differences were found between different academic specializations (humanities, engineering and sciences, and medical fields) across any of the three domains or in the overall difficulty score related to scholarly publishing.