International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 174 – No.1, September 2017 15 A Web-based Benchmarking System for Health Research Scientists, Case Study - Saudi Arabia Tahani Daghistani MS in Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Science King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (MNGHA) Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Hanan Althagafi Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (MNGHA) P.O Box 54178 Zip Code 11541 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ABSTRACT Objectives: The primary objective is to explore the Research Award System (RAS) experience at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A case study method was used to describe a real experience of a research award system (RAS) with multiple data sources collection. Results: RAS is one of the tools used by KAIMRC for attracting and retaining research scientists and improve the overall performance, in line with its vision and strategies. RAS identifies, validates and honor research scientists based on quantitative measures. It covers three groups of research scientists and calculate the final score(FS) for a total of ten (10) criteria and based on the assigned criterion/sub-criterion weight. The Journals Impact Factor (JIF) that required for the calculations, can be imported from outsourcing databases like International Scientific Indexing (ISI) or Scopus. Also, provides each applicant with an estimated final score (FS) instantly. Conclusion: The current case study highlights a unique experience represented in an automated research award system (RAS). RAS automates the process of selecting winners using quantitative criteria and benchmarking approach. Such a system can be utilized at broader levels, to support research institutions or R&D organizations in self-assessment on the level of their belonging research scientists and to develop a large pool of research scientists data required for research programs and initiatives. Keywords Research Award, Web-Based, Benchmarking, Performance, Scoring System, Self-Assessment 1. INTRODUCTION Healthcare and research services organizations are leading their research capacity in a dynamic and competitive environment. Building research capacity has become a significant aspect in health arena at multiple levels, due to its impact on improving population health and wealth that are required for the sustainable development [1]. Several studies have shown that financial depth, protection of intellectual property rights, government capacity to mobilize resources, and the quality of research institutions appear as the main reasons for high investing in research [2]. In Saudi Arabia where the financial and government support for research was considered high in the MENA region during the last 10 years, it is valuable for the research institutions to focus their efforts on improving the research productivity in terms of quality and quantity. In the view of research capacity, research institutions in Saudi Arabia should initiate programs to emerge research recognition, research learning and research return on investment. Taking into account, factors that may impact potential and expert research scientists, to stay encouraged and preserve a positive attitude. From this standpoint, Research competitions can be organized as one way to achieve this goal. A critical question that can be posed is how do the performance of research productivity measured? As an example, the high number of publications such as articles, conferences, books etc. , is a recognized indication of a research productivity and evolving knowledge successfully [3, 4]. However, the practice of research evaluation can be defined as an activity in which certain aspects of the quality of research practice are investigated. Since there is no correct answer for the previous question, regarding matrices that use to measure research output or research performance [5], tangible or quantitative measures are needed to evaluate a wide majority of researchers systematically and scientifically [6]. Quantitative measures are different than peer- review in which peer review information provided by multiple experts by multiple qualitative evaluation criteria. Although, peer review research evaluation is convenient for educational purposes [7], yet it still popular and used in many journals and research projects evaluation panels [8]. Accordingly, Benchmarking method can be used on quantitative measures for greater efficiency in research or research scientists’ evaluation. Taking into consideration, benchmarking approach can be meaningless if invalid criteria were used. It has been known that performance criteria presented outside a benchmarking method have no power to initiate revolution for improvement [9]. Moreover, the importance and impact of research within the certain context of the organization are enabling to feed such measurements to continuous improvement cycle. Presently, there is an automated system for measuring and benchmarking the performance of research productivity in Saudi Arabia. This system was developed and launched- before a couple of years- by a well-known local research institution to measure many aspects of research outcomes with the aim of covering existing and potential research scientists in the country. It is the intention of this paper, to provide a convenient mechanism by which any organization can assess their research productivity performance and compare it against other organizations [9]. The general aim of this case study is to discover the use of performance criteria to measure and benchmark research productivity performance. The primary objective is to explore Research Award System experience at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) in Saudi Arabia.