Journal of Iranian Social Studies

Abstract Although, the nature and causality of "academic culture" in Iranian society has been a subject of debate for the past two decades, it has been less widely considered as a measurable component in the planning and executive management system. The purpose of this article is to propose a plan for an empirical study of "academic culture". The study aimed at defining the terms "culture" and "university", considering the structure of scientific proposals and existing academic works and comments to make a theoretical contribution to the concept. The proposed theoretical model is suggested to be tested in an analytical quantitative study. The results of study attempt to answer two questions about "what" the academic culture is and, "how" to formulate it theoretically.