ABSTRACT

The present study aims to investigate the publication rate of Forensic Medicine specialty theses in national and international journals.

The Council of Higher Education Thesis Centre Database was searched for medical specialty theses written between 1983-2016. Another screening was carried out using the resident and mentor names, as well as thesis title on Ulakbim, Türk Medline, Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed databases. The years that the theses were written and the articles were published, the database of the journal, resident’s name order, type of research, thesis subjects were recorded.

The findings showed that 77 (32.6%) out of a total of 236 theses written between 1983-2016 were published. Fifteen-point two percent of these theses were published in Science Citation Index-Expanded/Social Sciences Citation Index, 11.9% were published in international and 5.5% in national indexed journals. The mean publication time was 2.95±2.49 years. It was found that the resident was the first author in 85.7% of the articles, and 53.2% of the published theses were prospective studies. Most frequently article subjects were in the fields of Forensic Pathology (26%) and Psychiatry (23.4%).

Publishing rate of the theses in Forensic Medicine was similar to the data regarding publication rates of theses in different medical specialty fields in our country and abroad; however, it is below the level desired. It is of utmost importance to find solutions to facilitate the process, including but not limited to mentors that are encouraging and instructive, foreign language support, time and funding.

Keywords: Forensic Medicine, Publication, Specialty, Theses