Institutional Research Evaluation Model (IREM): A framework for measuring organizational research trends and impact and its application in medical academia in Saudi Arabia

Increased financial and human resource constraints for research and development (R&D) imply rigorous research evaluation to guide the research policy for wise allocation of resources. In this study, we developed a conceptual framework called the “Institutional Research Evaluation Model” (IREM) to evaluate the quality of research and its determinants. The IREM was then applied to a medical institution to study its applicability in Saudi Arabia. The IREM consists of five levels: duration decision; choice of research quality indicators [impact factor (IF), article influence scores (AIS), citations per paper (CPP), and publication in indexed journal]; trend indicators (numbers of publications, study design, subject); data extraction; and statistical techniques to determine the factors affecting impact of research. Application of the IREM to the College of Medicine, King Saud University (CMKSU) for research evaluation from 2003 to 2013 revealed that during this duration, 1722 studies were published, the highest in 2013 (n = 314) and 85.5% (n = 1472) in indexed journals (p < 0.001). The mean IF was 2.6, mean AIS 1.16, and mean CPP 10.06. IF was positively associated with duration, indexation, CPP, and subject being human genetics at multivariable linear regression. The IREM is an applicable basic tool for institutional research evaluation which can guide the research policy.