Ali Uzun

Assessing internationality of scholarly journals through foreign authorship patterns: the case of major journals in information science, and scientometrics

This article reports findings from a study of patterns of foreign authorship of articles, and international composition of journal editorial boards in five leading journals in the field of information science, and scientometrics. The study covers an American journal and four European journals. Bibliographic data about foreign authors and their national affiliation from five selected years of publication were analyzed for all journals. The foreign input of articles were extremely high in Information Processing & Management, and Scientometrics, and were relatively low in the other three journals. The number of foreign countries contributing in all journals have increased rapidly since 1996. Canada, England, Belgium, Netherlands, China, and Spain were the countries with high contributions in JASIST. The authors from the USA have dominated the foreign-authored articles in all European journals. A simple linear regression analysis showed that 60% of variation in the proportion of foreign-authored articles in the set of five journals over the selected years could be explained by the percentage of foreign members on the editorial boards of the journals.

Technological innovation activities in Turkey: the case of manufacturing industry, 1995–1997

Abstract This paper is based on the initial findings of a nation-wide survey of technological innovation activities of 2100 firms in Turkish manufacturing industry. Our findings show that the innovation activities are more widespread in the firms having large sizes of employment. In some sectors of manufacturing industry 60–80% of the firms undertake innovation activities. Improving the product quality and opening up new markets rank at the top of the main objectives of innovation activities. In-house R&D turn out to be the main sources of information assisting innovation activities. 51.2% of the firms that are engaged in innovation carry out joint R&D with consultancy firms, and 52.3% of the firms with which Turkish firms co-operate are in the EU countries. In the majority of the manufacturing sectors, more than 50% of the total sales are derived from technologically new and improved products. Only 19% of the firms have had patent applications with a return of very few patented inventions. A correlation analysis of basic indicators of innovation activities shows that, for instance, sales of new products, R&D expenditures, and firm sizes correlate only weakly.

A bibliometric analysis of physics publications from Middle Eastern countries

I studied the publication efforts in physics in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey in terms of a total number of 2368 papers from these countries in international journals for 1990–1994. I looked for the national contributions, main subjects of activity, journal preferences of authors, and co-authorship patterns. Comparisons show that physicists from Egypt and Turkey combined, produced 75% of the total publication output. Half of the Egyptian papers went only to 16% of a set of 115 journals that publish papers from this country. Such a high concentration of papers in a few journals was not the case for the rest of the countries. Condensed matter physics was found to be among the three most active subjects for the countries except Iran. Iranian authors tended to be more active in astrosciences, and nuclear science and technology. I found a change in the publication patterns of the Middle Eastern physicists in the direction of decreasing isolation and increasing collaboration.

PUBLICATION PATTERNS OF TURKISH ASTRONOMERS

We studied 187 papers published in the journals on astronomy and astrophysics indexed in theScience Citation Index (SCI) for the decade period 1985–1994. These have been the papers that included at least one author listing an address from an institution in Turkey. We found that a great majority of the papers, whether theoretical or observational, went to only very small number (three) of a total set of 34 journals in the area. The distribution of papers by institutions revealed that about three fourths of the papers came from two universities: the Aegean University, and the Middle East Technical University (METU). We also found that the fraction of multiple authored papers has increased appreciably and the number of citations an “average” paper received has decreased gradually during the period considered.

Science and technology policy in Turkey. National strategies for innovation and change during the 1983-2003 period and beyond

SummaryAn evaluation of Turkeys science and technology (S & T) policy in the last two decades has been made by using various indicators of S & T and technological innovation. National trends in inputs for research and development (R & D) activities, publication output and patent data have been studied for the implications of the S & T policy from 1983 to 2003. Some of the findings on the outcomes of policy measures in terms of inputs to R & D and publication output are as follows: (1) Total R & D expenditure, as percent of gross domestic product (GDP), increased from 0.32% in 1990 to 0.67% in 2002, (2) the fraction of R & D in the total expenditure for technological innovation increased from 6.6% in 1995-1997 to 29.2% in 1998-2000, and (3) the number of papers in the journals covered in the Science Citation Index (SCI) of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) increased from 464 in 1983 to 12160 in 2003 - a more than 26-fold increase in the last two decades.

National patterns of research output and priorities in renewable energy

Abstract This paper attempts to compare the research output and priorities of 25 major countries in renewable energy research. The main objective is to assess the research priorities of the major countries in frontier areas/subjects of renewable energy using some bibliometric measures based on renewable energy literature. Subjects of high activity and subjects of low activity are identified for two time periods (1996–1997 and 1998–1999). Our findings show that the output of publications including articles, reviews, letters, notes, editorials, and book reviews of India, Greece, and Belgium declined between 1996–1997 and 1998–1999. All measures indicate that in the USA all subjects of renewable energy received more or less the same priority. The rest of the countries had differentiated high- or low-priority profiles in different subjects. Among the main research subjects of renewable energy only photovoltaic technology (PV) had a fairly homogenous profile for all countries.

Citation status of Turkish physics publications in foreign journals: A global analysis

We have studied the citation rates and characteristics of 572 Turkish physics publications that appeared in the source journals listed in theScience Citation Index (SCI) for the period 1982–1990 to drive the following results: The papers appeared in a set of 94 journals, and 68% of the total output went to 21 of these; half of which are journals of high impact. On the average, papers from Turkey that appeared in the American and European journals are cited at rates higher than the corresponding “average” papers. There has been a substantial shift of Turkish papers from European journals to American journals over the last few years. These changes are an example of the process by which science in a less developed country becomes integrated into the word scientific community.

A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF TURKISH PUBLICATION OUTPUT IN PHYSICS BETWEEN 1938-1987

The output of a total of 860 publications in physics for the period 1938–1987 is used to analyse the mainstream of physics research in Turkey. The productivity and growth characteristics of the research in experimental and theoretical areas as well as in different subfields and institutions in the country are briefly discussed. The total output is also assessed by its citation impact.

Main trends in graduate study in basic sciences in Turkish universities: a quantitative overview

This paper seeks to trace the development of graduate studies in basic sciences in Turkish universities from origins to the present day. The study includes a sketch of the historical background of higher education from its start in medieval madrasahs and Istanbul Darulfunun (‘The House of Sciences’), to the transition into present-day university education, i.e., to the beginnings of modern graduate study and the emergence of new universities. Empirical statistics are given to substantiate the rapid growth of graduate study and of the number of degrees produced since the 1980s. The mean number of Ph.D. Degrees per year has increased from a few in a single university in the 1930s to nearly a hundred in todays twenty seven universities in Turkey in the 1980s. Finally, a quantitative overview of the growth trends in graduate study in basic sciences as well as an assessment of the present degree productivity of Turkish universities are presented.

Research activity and the state of astrosciences in Turkey

ConclusionsThe above analysis on the macro characteristics of research activity indicates that, in spite of the observed low level of national research output, research in astrosciences has shown quite a rapid progress in the last two decades. The productivity of astronomers — now about 0·3 publications/researcher per year — can be improved by making the scientific environment more conductive to research.