Science in Turkey
Between 2001 and 2005, Thomson Scientific indexed 49,158 papers that listed at least one author address in Turkey. Of those papers, the highest percentage appeared in journals categorized under the heading of clinical medicine, followed by agricultural sciences. …[T]he citations-per-paper (impact) average for clinical-medicine papers from Turkey during 2001-05 was at 33% of the world average (or 67% below–1.77 cites per paper for Turkey versus the world mark of 5.40 cites). On the other hand, the nation’s relative-impact scores were comparatively strong in engineering, geosciences, and mathematics. (Overall publication percent share 1.25) (click here for 2001-05 chart)
This was an improvement from the scores for 1995-99 (17,848 papers, overall publication percent share .52) with strengths in computer science, engineering and molecular biology. (click here for 1995-99 chart)
Click here for a chart showing Turkey’s world share of science and social-science papers over a recent five-year period, expressed as a percentage of papers in each of 21 fields in the Thomson Scientific database. Also, Turkey’s relative citation impact compared to the world average in each field, in percentage terms.
Not surprising to me. Turkish universities have been rules like the military by their rectors appointed to uphold the status quo, not to pursue science. Even known plagiarizers held their jobs as long as their loyalty was not in doubt. Kemal Alemdaroglu, rector of Istanbul University comes to mind.