Abstract

This study examines the attitudes of university professors toward monetary and non-monetary research incentives at Arab universities. The study was motivated by the observation that some university professors appear to prefer monetary research incentives rather than non-monetary ones, and vice versa. For the purpose of this study, sixty university professors, thirty-two males and twenty-eight females, from six Arab universities were interviewed using a semi-structured format. The results revealed that 78 percent preferred monetary research incentives because of the need for finance to support their research, especially assistant professors. However, other professors, already promoted to full professor rank, believed that non-monetary research incentives are essential as a means of showing appreciation and praise for the significant contributions they have made to the knowledge in their field. It is therefore recommended that university professors should receive monetary incentives for all research activities published in reputable global databases, namely, Scopus and the Web of Science. It is also suggested that non-monetary incentives for very active researchers can be distributed on a yearly basis. The study concludes with recommendations for further research.