This study aims to reveal English language academicians and postgraduate students’ ambitions about involving in research studies in a developing country, Turkey. To collect data, a questionnaire was constructed and delivered to 159 ELT academicians and students to learn about their experiences in research and writing a research report, and perception of difficulty in different sections of a research report. Besides, semi-constructed interviews were also administered to 12 academicians. The results indicated significant differences between academicians and students. Besides, discussion was regarded as the most difficult part whereas writing references was the easiest. Although participants reported their experiences in constructing the skeleton of a research paper, they regarded themselves weak in long run studies.

Keywords: Research, research culture, academic writing, academic writing difficulties.