| Popis: |
The number of scientific publications is an essential objective indicator of the scientific level of countries. After 2016, the academic reputation of Turkey declined in the rankings steadily despite significant investments in higher education. Between 2016 and 2018, more than eight thousand academics were dismissed from state universities, corresponding to 5.7% (n = 3 542) of the 60 385 academics. This study evaluated the effects of these mass dismissals on scientific publication performance. We assessed all 108 state universities’ scientific publication performances in 2016. The universities were categorized according to the dismissal levels compared to the number of academics in 2016 as 10% (n = 20, Group 3). The performed and expected annual scientific publications were compared after the mass purge. The publications increased approximately 13.2% per year between 2012 and 2016 (from 34 130 to 52 168) and 3.1% from 2016 to 2019 (from 52 168 to 57 013). The expected total numbers of publications were calculated as 55 643 for 2017, 60 225 for 2018, and 64 806 for 2019; the observed-expected differences were 13.8%, 13.4%, and 12.0%, respectively. The mean number of publications decreased in 2017 in all three groups. Group 2 and Group 3 were more affected than Group 1. Significant differences were shown between Group 1 and Group 3 (p for 2017, 2018, and 2019, 0.027, 0.009, and 0.017, respectively). The academic purge at Turkish universities showed a significant impact on overall academic productivity beyond the number of academics dismissed. |
