We fabricated the polyacrylic acid (PAA)-doped $MgB_2$ bulks and characterized their lattice parameters, actual C substitutions, microstructures, and critical properties. The boron (B) powder was mixed with PAA using N,N-dimethylformamide as solvent and then the solution was dried out at $200^{circ}C$ and crushed. The C treated B powder and magnesium powder were mixed and compacted by uniaxial pressing at 500 MPa, followed by sintering at $900^{circ}C$ for 1 h in high purity Ar atmosphere. We observed that the PAA doping increased the MgO amount but decreased the grain size, a-axis lattice constant, and critical temperature ($T_c$), which is indicative of the C substitution for B sites in $MgB_2$. In addition, the critical current density ($J_c$) at high magnetic field was significantly improved with increasing PAA addition: at 5 K and 6.6 T, the $J_c$ of 7 wt% PAA-doped sample was $6.39;{ imes};10^3;A/cm^2$ which was approximately 6-fold higher than that of the pure sample ($1.04;{ imes};10^3;A/cm^2$). This improvement was probably due to the C substitution and the refinement of grain size by PAA doping, suggesting that PAA is an effective dopant in improving $J_c$(B) performance of $MgB_2$.