Publication rates of dissertations written in medical faculties of Turkey in the field of urology between the years 2008, and 2011, and citation analysis: A cross-sectional study

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Objective: In our country, preparing dissertation is essential for the research assistants in order to completetheir expertise in medicine. It is aimed to produce hypothesis for researchers via writing their dissertations,to collect data for the hypothesis established, to make the analysis and interpretation of these data, and togain the ability for the comparison of the findings obtained with the literature. In this study, we want toinvestigate the publication rates and citations of urology dissertations that are written at the university hospitalsin our country between 2008 and 2011.Material and methods: Urology dissertations that are written at the university hospitals between 2008and 2011 were reviewed by entering the website of Board of Higher Education Dissertation between23-27 March 2017 and 229 dissertations were reported. The publication rates of these dissertations wereanalysed.Results: Hundred and fourteen of 229 dissertations (49.7%) analysed were published. Of these publications,75 (32.7%) in Science Citation Index Expanded, 24 (10.4%) in international, 15 (6.5%) are published in nationalindexed peer-reviewed journals. While the publication rate of 81 dissertations written in universitieslocated in 3 metropolitan cities (Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir) of Turkey was 50.6%, the publication rate of148 dissertations written in remaining universities was 49.3%; and no statistically significant difference wasfound between the two groups (p=0.96).Conclusion: Preparing dissertation is a challenging process that requires considerable effort and time. Atthe end of this process, it is necessary to publish the dissertation in order to have it reach more people andto contribute to the literature. Even though publication rate of dissertations written in urology at universityhospitals in Turkey was at acceptable level, there have still been problems required to solve.