Bilkent's social science faculty once again outperformed their colleagues at Turkey's top universities by leading the nation in the number of papers published in 1997 in the world's leading social science journals.
The newly released 1997 Social Sciences Citation Index shows that 37 papers by Bilkent social science faculty members were published in leading journals. Bilkent's social science faculty also led the nation in 1996 by publishing 35 papers in Index journals.
Bilkent has achieved this distinction despite the fact that unlike many universities it does not have a Psychology Department, traditionally a rich source of research for journal publications.
The newly released figures show that Bilkent produces far more publications per social science faculty member than all Turkish universities. For example, METU (Middle East Technical University), which ranked second nationally in social science papers published in 1997, produced 0.163 published papers per its 184 social science faculty members, compared to 0.4353 for BilkentÕs 85 social science faculty members.
The Social Sciences Citation Index is made up of more than 1,700 journals worldwide chosen on the basis of their presentation of high-quality, cutting edge research. Universities typically use faculty members' publication rates as an indication of the overall quality of the school's instruction. It is assumed that faculty members involved in current research are more likely to expose students to the latest information and debate in their chosen field than those not involved in such research.
