Factors Associated with Research Productivity among Oral Healthcare Educators in an Asian University

Research writing confidence and organizational support toward research activities are two essential factors that may affect research productivity among higher educational institutions. This study investigated the possible relationships of these two factors to research productivity among faculty members of the College of Dentistry at Lyceum of the Philippines University-Batangas. The study used descriptive survey using percentage, weighted mean and Chi square to test the relationship of the selected variables. The findings indicate that Dentistry faculty members have low research productivity as evidenced by its research production, with only five of them having completed a research paper as main author and only one as co-author (but, not the main author) from SY 2008-2009 to 2012-2013. Respondents agreed that, in average, institutional support is higher than the departmental support for conducting research paper. Meanwhile, respondents are most confident with the technical part in research writing, but least confident in writing the methodology. Organizational support given by the university itself and the Department of College of Dentistry towards research activities and faculty members' confidence in writing the paper particularly the technical and major parts were not indicators associated with research productivity. However, they are confident with the other parts of the research process including writing the abstract and references as associated with developing research findings.