Akademinin atıf dizinleri ile savaşı

Abstract

One of the hot topics that has been discussed within the academia is publishing articles in journals that are listed in citation indexes. The main reason for the emergence of this debate is some widely used approaches that defend the idea of evaluating academic staff according to the number of articles that they publish. Especially in some universities, having articles listed in citation indexes is one of the prominent prerequisites for the academic advancement. The motivation for publishing articles that are covered by citation indexes is not limited with the academic advancement criteria only. In Turkey, besides these criteria, to write articles indexed in citation indexes is encouraged in various other ways. Giving financial support to those who have articles indexed in citation indexes to make their participation possible in the activities (conference, symposium, etc.) that are held in abroad and to give money under the Incentive Program for International Scientific Publications. These incentives cause a significant increase in the number of articles with affiliations in Turkey. Turkey has increased the number of articlesindexed in citation indexes remarkably within the last 20 years. Yet, it is obvious that a careful review of the emergence and the purpose of citation indexes, and the changes in the citation indexes occurring over time, are needed. Citation indexes are widely used to get access to information around the world. However, in Turkey, it is noteworthy that the aim of using citation indexes is increasingly being oriented towards performance evaluation rather than accessing information. Current practices related to performance evaluation in our country are based on some daily decisions regardless of the changes and the developments in the world. This approach brings along several problems. Although some progress is observed in certain issues, current practices show that quantity still comes first and the performance evaluations of the academic staff is still performed on the basis of number of publications and citations thereto regardless of the differences among the disciplines. In this study, the definition and the purpose of the use of citation indexes were delineated. Moreover, changes in time, effects of these changes and the issues that should be taken into consideration in Turkey for the evaluations based on citation indexes were discussed. In addition, the question of to what extent articles indexed in citation indexes play a role on the academic advancement criteria was discussed and some recommendations related to the evaluation of academic staff for the academic advancement were presented.