An Evaluation on Turkey Addressed Journals in Citation Indexes

Abstract

Turkish academia places a premium on citation indexes. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of related academic articles and popular scientific papers. Considering the importance of citation indexes in Turkey, recent developments on this issue should not be overlooked. One of the most important developments in this area has been the expansion decision of the company, which is the commercial owner of the citation indexes. With the expansion decision, a large number of journals from many countries including Turkey were added in the citation indexes. It is impossible to say that this decision of expansion could only be related to the increasing number of journals all around the world. Some new formations (such as Google Scholar, Scopus, etc.) that have taken place in the market as the competitors of citation indexes, and the owner company’s tendency to accommodate the journals of the countries to which it sells databases in order to increase its market share, should have influenced this decision. In such an environment, Turkey needs to evaluate its own journals and try to acquire a solid place within the citation indexes. This study investigates the Turkey addressed journals included in the citation indexes in terms of their places in the production of scientific publications in Turkey, and their impact factors in the related areas. The study also aims to reveal the extent to which Turkey addressed journals in citation indexes can be accepted as domestic. The results of this study show that in Turkey addressed journals, four-fifth of papers have at least one author from Turkey, and one-third of all publications are in Turkish. In addition, it was found out that the scientists in the editorial boards of Turkey addressed journals in citation indexes are mainly from Turkey. It was also found out that, Turkey addressed journals have relatively low impact factors in the related fields, the reason of which could be attributed to the regional characteristics of Turkey addressed journals.