From Thesis to Publication: A Five-Year Cross-Disciplinary Analysis in Pathology, Urology, and Endocrinology (2018-2022)

TL;DR

This study examines how often residency theses in Turkey are published in scientific journals, finding significant differences across three medical fields.

Contribution

The study provides a cross-disciplinary analysis of thesis-to-publication conversion rates in pathology, urology, and endocrinology in Turkey.

Findings

Urology theses had the highest publication rate at 37.0%, compared to 25.0% in pathology and 21.9% in endocrinology.

Urology publications had the highest representation in SCI-E indexed journals and the highest average citations per publication.

Endocrinology theses had the highest mean Journal Impact Factor of 2.3, significantly higher than other fields.

Abstract

Objective:
Despite the legal requirement to complete a thesis during residency training in Türkiye, the extent to which these theses are translated into high-quality scientific publications remains unclear. Disciplinary differences in research culture, resource availability, and clinical workload may influence these outcomes.

Material and Methods:
This cross-sectional study analyzed 1245 open access residency theses completed between 2018 and 2022 in the fields of pathology (n=344), endocrinology (n=525), and urology (n=376). Theses were retrieved from the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education. Their publication status was identified via searches in PubMed and Google Scholar. Data collected included journal index status (SCI-E, ESCI, ULAKBIM), Journal Impact Factor™ (JIF), citation count, and time to publication. Statistical comparisons were made using chi-squared and Kruskal-Wallis tests with p < 0.05 considered significant.

Results:
Among the 1245 residency theses analyzed, 344 (27.6%) were in pathology, 525 (42.2%) in endocrinology and metabolic diseases, and 376 (30.2%) in urology. The conversion rate to publication significantly differed across specialties (p = 0.0002): 86 of 344 pathology theses (25.0%), 115 of 525 endocrinology theses (21.9%), and 139 of 376 urology theses (37.0%) were published. Urology theses had the highest representation in SCI-E indexed journals (72.7%), while endocrinology demonstrated the highest mean Journal Impact Factor (2.3; p < 0.0001). The average number of citations per publication was also highest in urology (4.5), although this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.0673). Median time to publication ranged from 2.3 to 2.7 years, with no significant difference between specialties (p = 0.1287). Differences in the distribution of Q2, Q3, and Q4 journal publications were statistically significant between specialties.

Conclusion:
Endocrinology had the highest number of theses, whereas urology had the highest publication rate and number of citations per publication.

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