1 TÜRKİYE PROFESYONEL LİGLERİNDE GÖREV ... - Spor Bilim

Figure 3: The distribution of the fields of theses according to the year (1988-2002)
Count
40
30
20
10
0
1988
1989
YEARS
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
FIELDS
SPORTS MANAGEMENT
PSYCHO-SOCIAL
TRAINING SCIENCES
SPORTS HEALTH
EDUCATION
Four (1.8%) theses have been published in the Turkish Journal of Sports Medicine
(indexed in Sportdiscuss).
Conclusion: Most of the theses were prepared in Institutes for Health Sciences and
originated mostly from Marmara University. Theses were mostly menthored by Full
Professors and were prepared in Training and Movement Sciences. Few theses were
published in indexed journals.
The low percentage of published papers based on the theses is not exclusive feature of
Turkish Sports Sciences, the data for France show that only 17% of medical Ph.D. theses
result in publication of an article (3). It seems that theses are rarely used as reference
iterature, although they can be cited in scientific papers (4). Although recognized by the
scientific community as official scientific documents, theses are rarely read by more than
a few scientists, because they are usually available only in University libraries or in the
Library of the Council of Higher Education , written in Turkish language only, and not
indexed in international databases. The real value of scientific work can be appreciated
only when Research results get published in relevant literature, and become visible and
easy accessible through secondary publication to all scientists (5).
Choosing the right journal for submitting the scientific paper is also important. We
discovered that only 4 papers resulting from the theses were published in a journal
indexed Sportdiscuss. Perhaps some of the theses were published in journals not indexed
in bibliographic databases we searched. Even if this was the case, they would still remain
mostly invisible to the scientific community. The science does not exist until it is
published (6). Although the theses are, by definition, a form of scientific work, they
cannot be considered as such if left unpublished.
In Turkey, Sports Sciences received in its early days strong academical support from
Health and Medical sciences. Therefore most PhD programs were initialized in Institutes
of Health Sciences. This process can be also observed in our findings. Even some fields of
physical Education and sports sciences would be more related to humanities, natural and
social sciences most PhD theses have been performed in Health Sciences. But despite
this, an effort to prepare theses within the boundaries of sports sciences can be observed
i.e. subjects cover mostly the field of training and movement sciences. But the majority