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Purpose: Relevance ranking algorithms rank retrieved documents based on the degrees of topical similarity (relevance) between search queries and documents. This paper aims to introduce a new relevance ranking method combining a probabilistic topic modeling algorithm with citation data. Data and Method: We applied this method to the iSearch corpus of c. 435,000 physics papers. We first ran the topic modeling algorithm on titles and summaries of all papers for 65 search queries and obtained the relevance ranking lists. We then used citation data with the existing relevance rankings, thereby incrementally refining the results. The outcome produced better relevance rankings with papers covering various aspects of the topic searched as well as the more marginal ones. Finally, we evaluated the retrieval performance of the proposed method. Findings: Findings suggest that the topic modeling algorithm might sometimes overlook the terms used in different contexts in the papers. However, the fusion of citation data to relevance ranking lists provides additional contextual information, thereby enriching the results further with various papers of higher relevance. Moreover, results can easily be re-ranked. Implications: We argue that once it is tested on dynamic corpora for computational load, robustness, replicability, and scalability, the proposed method can, in time, be used in both local and international information systems such as TR-Dizin, Web of Science, and Scopus. Originality: The proposed method is, as far as we know, the first one that shows that relevance rankings produced with a topic modeling algorithm can be incrementally refined using citation data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper aims to find out the factors that are likely to increase the citation impact of Turkey-addressed international papers. Method: For this purpose, we downloaded bibliographic records of some 226,000 TR-addressed papers that were published between 2006 and 2015, there from selected a sample (2%) using stratified probabilistic sampling technique, and obtained relevant data from various sources such as the number of citations and coauthors, journal impact factors (JIF) and journal quartiles pertaining to each paper in the sample. We then identified 19 independent variables on article, journal, cooperation, support and access levels and analyzed the data using the hurdle model. Findings: The strongest factors increasing the number of citations of TR-addressed papers are five-year JIFs and journal quartiles (Q1) in which TR-addressed papers appeared and the number of references in papers' reference lists. These factors also reduce the number of papers with zero citations. Papers published in cooperation with other countries collect higher numbers of citations. Factors such as the subjects of papers, whether papers received monetary support or not, and methods by which papers can be accessed (open or closed access) have no impact on the number of citations received. Implications: Findings indicate that academic promotion and support policies encouraging publishing in high impact journals while forestalling publishing in low impact journals should be developed in order to increase the scientific impact of TR-addressed papers. Originality: This is the first study using hurdle model to investigate the direct impact of several article, journal, collaboration, monetary support and access level explanatory variables on the number of citations that TR-addressed papers receive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TÜBİTAK has introduced the Incentive Program for International Scientific Publications (UBYT) in 1993 in order to increase the quantity, quality and impact of TR-addressed publications indexed in Web of Science (WoS) and support their authors. Some changes take place from time to time in the algorithms used in the program to identify publications to be supported and to calculate the amounts of monetary support to be paid. The new support algorithm introduced in 2019 aims to improve the shortcomings of the previous one. This paper is a comparative investigation of the impact of the new algorithm on supported journals, publications and the amounts of payments. For this, we first compare the functioning of the old and new support algorithms. We then analyze the impact of the new algorithm on the Program's supported journals lists as well as on the publications having article influence scores (AIS) that were supported in 2015 according to the old algorithm. Findings show that ongoing problems such as providing relatively more support to low impact publications and paying different amounts to publications in different fields do not seem to have completely been solved with the new algorithm. We discuss the major issues with performance-based research funding systems that solely use bibliometric measures to determine the impact of publications and offer some suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the peer review system is seen as indispensable for scientific publishing, there are also problematic sides. This article has been written due to the Peer Review Week that has been celebrated on September 21-25. In the study, the weaknesses of the peer review process are discussed and the suggested models are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graduate theses and dissertations are one of the most important research outputs of universities. Yet, it is often difficult to find and provide access to them. Although it is now possible to get access to full-texts of theses and dissertations through the Internet, access problems still persist. In this paper, we investigate the issues of open access to graduate theses and dissertations in Turkey. We first reviewed the collection of the Higher Education Council Theses Center to find out what percentage of theses is accessible full-text. We then, through a questionnaire survey, collected the views of the authors of theses who opted to restrict access to their theses temporarily. Access to about one third of theses is restricted. As it was difficult to reach the authors of older theses and get their consent to make their theses available online, most of the restricted theses belong to pre-2006 period. An overwhelming majority (94%) of the authors restricted access to their theses because they wanted to publish papers based on their theses while two thirds (63%) did so because they feared of their theses being plagiarized. Yet, 81% of them said they support open access to theses and dissertations in general. Findings suggest that the issue of open access to theses needs to be dealt with from a broader perspective. We discuss the various access issues on the basis of our findings and offer some suggestions to solve them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was carried out in order to identify green (environmentally friendly) practices in university libraries in both institutional and individual contexts. Within the scope of this research, descriptive method was used, and also two questionnaires were used as data collection tools from library directors and librarians. Within the frame of the study, online questionnaire was sent to 165 directors and 1614 librarians working in 165 university libraries (out of 182 in total) in Turkey. 45 directors and 341 librarians responded to the survey. The directors' survey has six main sections including sustainable environment, water saving, energy saving, sustainable resources and materials, indoor air quality, innovation in design and implementation, and aims to collect information on an institutional basis. The librarian survey consists of three main parts which are demographic information, environmental awareness and attitude in daily life, and green libraries. The obtained data were analyzed by IBM Statistics SPSS 23.0 software package. In the study, it was found out that even though university libraries in Turkey fulfill some criteria such as proximity to public transportation, use of alternative options in transportation and water-efficient plumbing, monitoring water use, turning off electrical appliances when not in use, use of double glazed windows, taking precautions against paper waste with recycling or donation of printed resources, there are still deficiencies. Also, differences between universities have been identified in terms of green approaches/implementations and some libraries such as Atılım, Bilkent, Başkent and Yaşar University libraries have been observed to be greener than others within sustainable environment, water and energy saving, sustainable materials-resources, indoor air quality and design and application innovations. Although librarians have a low level of perception and awareness in green libraries and environmental sustainability issues, they have positive opinions about the initiatives promoting education and awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study predatory journals originated from Turkey in the Beall list, which situated in the context of the literature as an authority, have been identified and studied in detail. Results show that 3.2% of the journals in the list originated from Turkey. Accordingly, it is seen Turkey ranks second after India in the list. While the number of Turkish journals in the list was at a certain level from 2003 to 2010 (seven journals in 2010), it started to show a sudden increase since 2011 and reached 41 in 2016. We believe that the criteria discussed by the researchers (the criteria set by Beall or the others who criticize the Beall list) will guide the researcher to determine the predatory journals in order to be able to avoid them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, impressions from Digital Humanities 2016 held in Kraków, Poland in July 11-16, 2016 is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many universities have developed interactive and web-based campus maps. The spatial features of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are usually incorporated in such maps, thereby facilitating visual searches. The aim of this study is to design and develop an interactive, user-friendly and web-based Beytepe Campus Map to process visual queries. The Google Maps API application builder has been used to design the user interface for our campus map. Data has been gathered about several different places on campus and they were tagged on the map using CommunityWalk's place-pointing feature. Brief notes (dormitory capacities, pictures, phone numbers, etc.) about each place using explanation buttons have been added. A simple ontology comprising eight categories, each with its own sub-categories to represent the places at the Beytepe Campus has been developed. The MapCruncher software of Microsoft has been used to cut the map and paste it on to Google Maps for predefined granularity levels. A new button added to place the Beytepe campus map on Google Maps. To develop the mashup application using Google Maps API, we wrote the programming code using the Google Code Playground. We used JavaScript and JavaScript libraries to modify the user interface. In summary, the new campus map is more functional. The user interface can be improved in terms of design and functionality by adding new features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scopus uses some criteria to decide which journals to index in the database. This paper evaluates the journals indexed in Scopus database according to these criteria. The study universe consisted of 2013 Scopus journal list downloaded from SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) web page on September 18th, 2014. Countries that have more than 1000 journals and less than 100 journals in Scopus were left out of the study. The 203 journals were selected from 6,151 journals by the systematic sampling method and of these, 203 journals were analyzed with regard to the Scopus journal selection criteria. Based on the analysis of findings, we found that the most problematic criteria were having an online referee list, having publication ethics, citation levels of journals and internationalization. On the other side, regular publishing, having English journal website, having English titles and abstracts and having references in Roman Script were the most successful criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]