Effectiveness of an education intervention to strengthen faculty members' research productivity: a quasi-experimental study

Faculty scholarly productivity in the form of research publication consistently appreciated for its role in improving education and advancing knowledge. The purpose of this study is to increase research productivity among nursing academic staff of higher education institution. A prospective, one-group pre- and post-test experimental design was performed in a nonrandomized intervention group of nursing faculty members who attended a series of seminars and workshops of research. The target population comprised 50 faculty members working in a governmental university in the eastern region of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Results indicate that the difference in number of publications, web of science citations, Scopus citations, and google scholar citation after implementation of stimulating research productivity program were statistically significant. Faculty members experience changes in attitude toward and intention to conduct research, as well as the number of their published research articles as the result of two-year educational interventional program on research productivity. The researchers, thus, recommend that higher education institutions, including schools of nursing and other health professions, adopt the Thomson Reuters’ intervention to accomplish the well-needed improvement in scholarly productivity, especially in the developing world, such as Middle Eastern countries.