Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Journal of Scientometric Research, cilt.13, sa.1, ss.230-238, 2024 (ESCI)
Journals, regardless of their quality, may facilitate the publication of studies of affiliated authors or those of researchers in their close networks, this exhibiting biased behaviors in favor of insider researchers during peer review. The aim of this research was to determine insider authors’ motivations for obtaining high and fast rates of acceptance of studies published by their affiliated institutions. A total of 11 Turkish dentistry journals with regular publishing schedules between 2017 and 2021 were examined. The publication language of the papers was either English or Turkish, and the papers were of four groups: original articles, reviews, case reports, and short communications. The submission date, acceptance date, and time from submission to acceptance of each paper were examined. The number of authors and the corresponding authors’ countries of origin were noted, and the papers were analyzed to determine whether the researchers were insiders. The findings show that insider authors both publish in large numbers in their affiliated universities' journals (15.6% - 65.0%) and have significantly faster speeds (up to 82 days). The average time from submission to acceptance significantly differed for insider and outsider researchers in all journals except four. As in most areas of the health sciences, dentistry also lacks research on bias and the literature contains no study examining this issue in the field of dentistry both in Turkey and in the world. This study invokes a new discussion in this area by focusing on national dentistry journals and the bias inherent in editorial attitudes. In the future studies, it would be better to compare data on insiders and outsiders by incorporating both national and international dentistry papers in the future studies.