Determining and weighting effective outputs of humanities research to meet scientific and professional goals: A study of language and literature fields

Abstract

Abstract Considering the specific nature of humanities and their fields and the need to design scientific outputs in proportion to these fields, the present study has sought to determine types of scientific outputs in the fields of language and literature and assess their significance and position for the evaluation of research. The study has been conducted in three stages: (1) extracting all the different types of scientific outputs in the fields of language and literature from published articles on the subject, (2) seeking opinions from experts in the fields of language and literature to modify and complete the list of outputs, and (3) Weighing scientific outputs according to the goals and approaches of research. According to the research findings, researchers in the fields of language and literature have generally preferred and prioritized three goals and approaches for their research activities: (1) production of science and promotion of knowledge foundations, (2) applicability and responsiveness to society’s problems, and (3) literary creation/creative literature. Based on the data obtained from the review of documents and interviews, scientific outputs can be divided into two categories of formats and activities. The formats adopted by language and literature researchers to share their results are journal article, book, research project, dissertation/thesis, and conference article. Besides, experts in the fields of language and literature have preferred to do their scientific activities in policy-making, social (media), social (scientific-promotional), and economic contexts. The journal article for the first goal and the book has more weight for the second and third goals. In all three goals, social (media) activities are prioritized.