Institutional distortion: Evaluation and Pathology of Political Science Papers in Fake Foreign Journals

One of the main goals of research in the world is the growth of science and, consequently, the advancement and welfare of society. In Iran, this goal has often been forgotten, and the publication of papers and their number has become a goal in comparison with other countries in the world. So that, in terms of the number of articles published in international journals, Iranians have gained a significant and high status, but they have not succeeded to convert these ideas into the industrial achievements. This phenomenon, which was seen in the past in the academic fields of science and engineering, has also been spreading over the years to the field of humanities, in particular, political science and International Relations. So that, we can see thet university professors and students are inclined to publish articles in low and even fake journals outside Iran. The article aims to, first, assess the status of the field of Political Science and International Relations in comparison with other disciplines of the humanities on this phenomenon and secondly have a pathology of these papers. Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used for this purpose. The findings of the research show that the number of fake journals has been exponential growth from 2013 to 2017 in Iran and also after the field of social sciences and psychology, researchers in the field of political science have shown the highest tendency to publish articles in these journals. This is despite the fact that, the publication of the paper in original foreign journals has been very small. Findings of the research also showed the poor quality of these articles compared to their domestic counterparts. In the pathology of this issue, which questioned the professional ethics of research, these factors were identified: Forcing professors to publish papers in foreign journals for upgrade to higher scientific levels, the student's obligation to publish an article to defend their thesis, the length of the review and publication process in Iranian journals, the assessment of PhD volunteers with the number of articles and so on.