Does Monetary Support
Increase Citation Impact of Scholarly Papers?
Yaşar Tonta
Hacettepe University, Department of Information Management, Ankara (Turkey)
Müge Akbulut
Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Department of Information Management, Ankara (Turkey)
ISSI 2019, September 2-5, 2019, Sapienza University, Rome
Performance-based research funding systems (PRFSs)
•
JIF-based PRFS (sometimes in combination with peer review)•
“side effects”•
Predatory journals, citation circlesPerformance-based research funding systems (PRFSs)
•
Subsidies would increase the # of papers and their citation impact•
Motivating form more papers with higher quality•
Not clear though if PRFSs increase productivity and impact•
PRFSs force researchers to choose between “cash or quality”TÜBİTAK’s Support Program of
International Scholarly Publications
•
“cash-for-publication”•
Based on JIF and, more recently, AISs•
7,500 Turkish Lira (circa 3,000USD in 2015) for TR- addressed papersData Sources
•
TR-addressed papers published between 2006 and 2015 and indexed in WoS (225,923)AD=(Turkey OR Turquie OR Türkei OR Türkiye OR Turquia)
Timespan: 2006-2015. Indexes: SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI. PubType: Article
•
JIF, AIS and JCR quartilesMethod
•
226K TR-addressed papers•
101K TR-addressed supported papers•
Macro 1: Creating a sample using the stratified probability sampling technique (4,521 records)•
Makro 2: Match up journal data•
Macro 3: match the list of papers supported by TÜBİTAK with all papersDescriptive Statistics
Notes: N: Number of papers; # of cit.: Number of citations; Mdn: Median; M: Mean; SD: Standard Deviation; t: t-test; p: p value; r: effect size; cit.: citation; JIF: Journal Impact Factor; AIS: Article Influence Score; *: statistically significant at alpha level .05.
# of citations per paper for supported
and not supported TR-addressed papers
JIFs and AISs of journals publishing supported and not supported TR-
addressed papers
Journal Impact Factor Article Influence Score
Percentage of papers by JIF and
distribution of papers by Quartiles
•
Support system seems to have failed to be more selectiveDistribution of papers by
JCR quartiles
Conclusion
•
The support program do not seem to have played much role in improving the citation impact of papers.•
The support system seems to have rewarded the authors of papers who published in mediocre or low impactjournals relatively more often.
•
The support program of TÜBİTAK should be reconsidered.Does Monetary Support
Increase Citation Impact of Scholarly Papers?
Yaşar Tonta
Hacettepe University, Department of Information Management, Ankara (Turkey)
Müge Akbulut
Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Department of Information Management, Ankara (Turkey)
ISSI 2019, September 2-5, 2019, Sapienza University, Rome
