The research management in Colombian universities

The research management in universities has not been a deep field studied in the Colombian context, so there is not enough evidence to analyze the characteristics of its intra-organizational factors and their possible effects on the scientific productivity. In this sense, this research aims to analyze the characteristics of research management in the twelve Colombian universities best positioned in international rankings, considering some conditions of quality and quantity of their scientific production. The method used was a concurrent mixed design giving higher priority to quantitative data than to qualitative ones. 36 institutional documents from the selected universities were analyzed, seven structured interviews were applied to institutional executives, and a questionnaire was applied to 269 members of the faculty linked to the selected universities. Additionally, the measurement of the scientific production of the selected universities for the period 2001 - 2017 was examined. As a conclusion, it was found that the research management in the universities is characterized by an institutional isomorphism that is explained from strategic planning focused on visibility and internationalization, which could negatively impact the recognition of other forms of knowledge production. The inability to have tools for the evaluation of research results has led universities to adopt international metrics that forget the local contexts of knowledge production.