EVALUATION OF ORTHOPAEDIC STUDIES ARISE FROM THESES: AN ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL THESIS CENTER IN TURKEY

Abstract

SUMMARY Background: The aim of this study was to present characteristics and publication patterns of studies arise from orthopedic theses obtained from National Thesis Center database in terms of publication years, study types, topics, level of evidence between 1974 and 2014. Methods: Firstly, National Thesis Center database was searched for orthopedics and traumatology. The theses, which their summary or full text were available included in the study. Theses were evaluated according to topics, study types and quality of study designs. Then theses were searched in the PubMed database. Journals of published theses were classified according to category, scope and impact factors of the year 2014. Results: 1508 theses included to study. Clinical studies were 71,7% of the theses, while 25,6% of the theses were non-clinical experimental and 2,7% of the theses were observational studies. Clinical studies were Level I in 8,6 % (n=93) and Level II in 5,8% theses (n=63). A total of 224 theses (14,9%) were published in the journals that indexed in PubMed database from 1974 to 2012. Fifty-two (23,2%) were published in SCI; 136 theses (60,7%) were published in SCI-E journals and 36 theses(16%) were published in other Journals that indexed in PubMed. Conclusion: The quantity and quality of published theses need to be improved and effective measures should be taken to promote quality of theses. Theses from universities and Training hospitals which did not allow open access to their theses, and incomplete records of the National Thesis Center database were major limitations of this study. DOI: 10.3944/AOTT.2016.15.0326 This abstract belongs to the un-edited version of the article and is only for informative purposes. Published version may differ from the current version.