Three dimensions of research quality

Research quality is currently an area attracting a lot of interest. Previous studies have looked at research quality mainly from two perspectives: as a measure of research productivity and performance (e.g. citation analysis) and as a guide for research quality development (e.g. reviewers’ comments analysis). While acknowledging the usefulness of the first, this paper focuses on the latter with the goal of identifying directions for professional development. Through reviewing previous studies related to research quality and guidelines for publishing, as well as looking at research articles published in international journals, this paper reveals research quality from three dimensions: research procedure quality (e.g. establishing validity and reliability), research presentation quality especially concerning the writing up of research (e.g. clarity of research purposes, clarity of findings), and researching quality (e.g. awareness of decisions taken, consideration of methodological strengths and weaknesses). The last of these is a characteristic of research quality that has not been paid much attention previously, and the implications of researching quality for the professional development of researchers are considered.