Knowledge flow analysis in research and planning quarterly in higher education

The purpose of the present study, was to investigate the flow of knowledge in the research and planning quarterly in higher education. In this research, 102 issues of this quarterly published in the period of 1993-2022 were reviewed. By choosing the strategy of content analysis and choosing famous criteria in this field, the quarterly magazine and its articles were checked from both structural and content aspects. In order to be able to analyze the flow of changes in the quarterly, all criteria were separated into three time periods: 1993-2002, 2003-2012, and 2013-2022. In the structural part, the movement of editors and responsible managers who were legally affiliated to the institution, as well as the evolution of topics and goals, the frameworks accepted by the quarterly magazine for publication, and the order of publishing articles were analyzed. In terms of content, 1- Demographic characteristics including: participation of universities and other institutions and centers in writing articles, scientific rank of authors, academic field and gender of specialists, group or individual writing of articles and the source of extracting articles, 2- Methodology including: research approach , data collection tools, data analysis method and strategy, the society and sample of the research, 3- The topics of interest of the authors of the articles were analyzed in relation to the topics of the quarterly magazine. Qualitative growth is observed in most of the criteria in three periods. This qualitative growth in the scientific rank of authors, more participation of women in articles, more attention to group writing, more attention to qualitative approaches and methods of combined and interpretive analysis shows itself over three decades. The focus of this quarterly magazine on planning, management and policy making is one of the distinctive features of the magazine, which has chosen its audience well. Also, the findings show that the articles of this quarterly magazine are a mirror of the social events of the higher education community; With the expansion of higher education and the emphasis on post-graduate studies, the participation of students and postgraduates in articles has increased. Considering that most of the contributors in this quarterly are humanities and social science experts, the interpretive and critical paradigm and interdisciplinary approach needs to be strengthened by the authors of the articles.