The Place of Turkey in the Science World (II) (2008-2012)

Objective: We aimed to compare the findings of our article published in 2010 (between 2008 and 2012) to comment on the place of the science in the world and evaluate the development of science in Turkey. Methods: Data from SCI were used to determine the progress of scientific production in Turkey and the world. Forty countries (Turkey included) with more than 90% of the economic and scientific production were analyzed. The place of these countries in the world's economic and scientific rankings was established using the H-Index criteria and the ranking of top 500 SCI institutes, and we compared these findings with the results found in 2008. Additionally, the change of the citations and article numbers from medical, surgical, and general science was evaluated in the same period. Results: The place of Turkey in the ranking according to the total number of articles in the general science was not changed (19th place) and was decreased from 14th to 15th place in the Medical Sciences and from 6th to 9th place in the Surgery Sciences. According to the number of citations, the place of Turkey was raised from 25th to 24th for the General Science and was regressed from 23rd to 26th in Medical Sciences and from 15th to 17th for Surgery Sciences. According to the H-index ranking, China had raised its place four steps, and 22 foundations from this country were included in the first 500; western countries and Japan lost 22 and 7 institutions, respectively. Turkey lost the position of two institutions from this ranking, and according to the H-Index ranking it had protected its lower position in 37th place. Conclusion: The decline of scientific papers and citations in Medicine and Surgery is remarkable. Our scientific institutions continue to remain behind the production of innovations and patents at universal scale.