Abstract:

Research assessment and incentive systems aim to measure the quality of scientific research. Because quality research outcomes not only increase people’s well-being, but also increase countries’ socio-economic development and competitiveness. In recent years, research has been evaluated only according to quantitative criteria, and quality has been almost completely ignored, and researchers are rewarded taking into account numbers such as the number of publications, the number of references. However, only numbers-based performance assessment systems encourage researchers to keep rant over time. In this exploratory case study, the effects of academic ascension and incentive systems in Turkey on academic rant management behaviors are studied. For this purpose, a very low-effect magazine in the Web of Science (WoS) has analyzed the changes in the academic titles of the Turkish-based articlewriters published in 2015 and whether these writers have benefited from the TÜBİTAK International Scientific Publications Encouragement (UBYT) Program. The findings show that a significant part of the authors have taken advantage of the shortcomings of the quantity-based academic rise and incentive systems, and that some authors have gained academic titles with only one article they published in this magazine that was later removed from WoS due to various ethical problems, and that they have published one and two authors in the magazine at very high rates to benefit from the UBYT program, but they have quickly ended their publication in this magazine after the magazine was removed from WoS. The academics should develop new research assessment systems that highlight the quality of research instead of existing research assessment and incentive systems that trigger rent management behaviors.

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