A social subject, such as the university, is involved in a wide range of issues, and social research on the university is conducted to address them. In the studies, multiple methods are used, each of which is only able to examine the university from a specific aspect, and with an emphasis on specific concepts. Government sponsors and industrial investors, who are only interested in some of the functions of the university, also support only the research they are interested in, and therefore lead to the more “valuable”, more prominent, and more strengthened concepts that are important to those investors and sponsors outside the university. The result of such a process is the destruction of internal norms of the university, and, as a result, leads to scientific and financial misconduct. For decades, critical theory scholars have been concerned with this issue, namely the importance of considering the totality of a social issue, and not just addressing a specific aspect of it. The present article, by describing the methodology of critical theory, and by presenting a discussion of Iranian university-related researches, claims that Iranian traditional (positivistic) researches, by highlighting some interests of specific groups, and eliminating public considerations, such as ideas related to the ethics of science, may lead to the weakening of the functioning, or even the collapse, of the institution of science and the university.
Keywords: Critical theory, Frankfurt School, University, University studies, Ethics of science, Research ethics, Scientific misconduct

Introduction
The developments that have been made in the subjects of Iranian universities with traditional methods have created ethical issues for them. Currently, certain concepts and divisions guide the research related to Iranian universities. Among these concepts, we can mention “scientific authority”, “international ranking”, “regional competition”, “entrepreneur university”, “commercialization of science”, “e-learning”, “Islamization of the humanities”, and other titles that are constantly repeated by Iranian policymakers and are frequently recalled as “national values”. These conceptual divisions will be comparable to the reified concepts intended by critical theorists. These divisions (i.e., theory) are conceptual matters and will form an immanent part of the social reality (i.e., the university). Two points justify the need for critical theory in the use of these concepts: First, the divisions (i.e., the theory) arise from the social contradictions existing in society. In Iran, in the case of the university, the emphasis is more on indicators that do not indicate the integrity of the university, but rather the productivity of the university for the market, industry, or government or religious institutions. Second, these conceptual (or illusory) divisions will prevent the real perception of the totality of the university. Continuous support for specific concepts and divisions, namely entrepreneurship, commercialization, or the quantity of publications, leads to the formation of more connections, receiving more money, and more publications. However, the supporters demand further promotion of these concepts and give more credibility in return, and an academic individual, because she is only one person and her abilities are limited, will have limitations on having more connections, more contracts, and more publications. In this situation, reified concepts lead the university to mechanisms that eliminate the restrictions. For example, to remove restrictions on more communication, more research projects, and more publication of articles, they hire assistants or students or graduates who may not yet have academic jobs and, in other words, do not have the "means of production" and, with lower wages, they help to increase the value ​​of formal researchers and the volume of their scientific activities. Such a practice leads to the destruction of ethical practices in the university.
Materials & Methods
The method of the research is conceptual analysis as well as documentary analysis.
Discussion & Result
This article argues that a critical approach, unlike traditional approaches (i.e. interpretive or positivist approaches), can improve unethical conditions. If the university were autonomous, then there would be conditions for reflecting its concepts. Only the university can understand or reorganize the university, and in the process of self-reflecting, in one sense, the university, as a self, researches on a subject like the university, or, in another sense, the researchers and the research system and their theories and concepts can be considered part of a larger whole, like society or the university “system”.By initially pursuing reified concepts, it is possible to gradually build a university with the characteristics policymakers desire, namely an entrepreneurial, commercialized, industry-related, and globally ranked university. Prioritizing these concepts will sacrifice the integrity of the university, including its internal ethical norms, to the demands of university supporters. And so, in exchange for achieving these goals, scientific misconduct, which was not considered in the policymakers' list of concepts, has spread in the scientific community, and "scientists" have emerged whose scientific activities may be mostly carried out by students and assistants who have fewer means of production. Now, if the university is autonomous, during the process of reflecting, the autonomous university (i.e., researchers) will assume the existing totality to be fixed and will reinterpret itself and the concepts in terms of what will be constructed. The autonomous university (i.e., researchers) will see itself as part of the advanced, entrepreneurial, and highly ranked system of “science production” in which ethical norms are no longer valued. Here, the old University’s approach, based on scientific norms, conflicts with the current approach, and the resulting understanding is incompatible with the university’s own accreditation system. And again, if the university is autonomous, then the university (i.e., the researchers) becomes aware of this contradiction and, in the sense described above, a kind of "alienation" and, as a result, a kind of self-awareness is achieved. At this stage, there will also be the expectation that the internal movement to resolve this kind of contradiction will continue with a change in the researcher's previous approach, then with renewed research, and finally with the formation of a newer whole (say, a university with newer features). This is a cycle that can continue until a certain liberation from illusory concepts is achieved.
Conclusion
In this article, by presenting a reading from the methodological perspective of critical theory, an attempt was made to show how university-related research in Iran prevents the maintenance of ethical norms and, as a result, weakens or collapses the institution of science and the university.