PUBLONS BASED PROFILING OF TURKISH REVIEWERS AND ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS

Introduction: Publons is the most prestigious and well-organized platform that allows to evaluate peer review metrics. It also provides publication and citation data as it is synchronized with the Web of Science. There are socio-cultural ties between Central Asian countries and Turkey, and these countries can take Turkey as a model for scientific development. Therefore, it will be useful for Central Asian countries to summarize Turkey's Publons activities. In this study, we used Publons database to list the top institutions, researchers and reviewers in Turkey. Methods: Publons database was used to export the data on October 10, 2021. The top 20 researchers were identified in terms of the number of verified reviews. Additionally, the top 20 institutions were determined in terms of the number of researchers, number of verified reviews and top reviewers. Results: On Publons, 57464 registered researchers from Turkey were found (ranked 7th) and 484 of these researchers had top reviewer status (ranked 16th). A total of 175644 verified reviews were detected from Turkey-based researchers (ranked 16th) and of which 45835 were performed in the last 12 months (ranked 14th). Based on the total number of researchers, four institutions from Turkey were in the top 100 in the world rankings (Hacettepe University, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, and Cukurova University). There were no institutions from Turkey among the top 100 in the lists created according to the number of verified reviews and top reviewers. Conclusion: Turkey has a considerable number of researchers registered with Publons. However, Turkey should follow a scientific route in terms of verified reviews. Turkey and Central Asian countries can create scientific collaborations and cooperative projects. Thus, Central Asian countries will benefit from Turkey's experiences.


INTRODUCTION
The peer-review process is an indispensable component for the growth of scientific logic and thought, which is the complement of scientific publishing (1). Despite its importance and centrality in scientific publishing, researchers frequently consider peer review as the thankless and unrequited activity (2). At this point, the Publons initiative stepped in and an increasing number of researchers began gaining a foothold in the scientific world due to their contributions to peer review (3).
Publons began as a way to offer credit to reviewers, but it has gradually grew and starts covering editorial entries. After Publons was acquired by Clarivate Analytics, it was integrated with the Web of Science and started providing publication information in this manner (4). Thus, Publons has come to the fore recently as a reliable and integrated database for several bibliometric data (2). It presents various data on researcher profiles, citation and peer review counts, and editorial credits. The system is synchronized with ORCID, allowing us to avoid problems that may arise from slight variations in author names, emails and other information (5). Additionally, Publons lets to search and list researchers, institutions and countries with its user-friendly interface (6).
The place of authors, institutes and countries in the scientific world can be evaluated using various parameters. Total citation count and impact factor are the most well-known of these, but they provide a onedimensional assessment. Different alternative metrics have also been emerged that can predict future citations and impacts on society (7).
Although there are young researchers and peerreviewers in Central Asian countries who can have global scientific influence, they may face difficulties in gaining access to the internet and receiving appropriate scientific mentoring (8,9). This may cause Central Asian countries to remain below their potential. Turkey has strong sociocultural relations with Central Asian countries and can serve as a model for them. Therefore, in this study, Publons database was used to reveal how the top institutions, researchers and peer-reviewers in Turkey. We hoped that researchers and authorities in Central Asian countries benefit from Turkey data as a model.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
On October 10, 2021, data for Turkey were obtained using Publons' internal search engine. Firstly, the total number of researchers, top reviewers, verified reviews, and verified reviews last 12 months was extracted. Then, the rankings of Turkey in terms of total number of researchers, top reviewers, verified reviews, and verified reviews last 12 months were noted. The top 20 researchers were determined in terms of the total number of verified reviews and the number of verified reviews in the last 12 months. Additionally, the top 20 institutions in terms of the total number of researchers verified reviews and top reviewers were recorded. The links to which the data are provided are presented in Table 1. Data were formatted into spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel 2016. Descriptive data are presented using tables.

RESULTS
A total of 57464 registered researchers from Turkey were identified on Publons (ranked 7th). 484 of these researchers had top reviewer status (ranked 16th). There were 175644 verified reviews provided by the researchers (ranked 16th), of which 45835 verified reviews were performed in the last 12 months (ranked 14th).
The top 20 researchers in terms of the total number of verified reviews are presented in Table 2. Ugur Canpolat from Hacettepe University was at the top of the list with 1185 verified reviews. Three more researchers with more than 1,000 verified reviews were identified (Figen Balo from the Firat University, n = 1076; Utku Kose from the Suleyman Demirel University, n = 1022; Erfan Babaee Tirkolaee from the Istinye University, n = 1018). The top 20 researchers in terms of the total number of verified reviews in the last 12 months are presented in Table 3. Aytug Onan from Izmir Katip Celebi University ranked first with 621 verified reviews. The 13 researchers that were in the top 20 in terms of the total number of verified reviews are also listed in Table 3.
Hacettepe University ranked first in Turkey and 14th in the world in terms of the researcher counts. In this category, four universities from Turkey were in the top 100 in the world rankings (Hacettepe University, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, and Cukurova University) ( Table 4). When institutions were listed according to the number of verified reviews, Istanbul Technical University ranked first in Turkey. No institution that entered the top 100 in the world rankings (Table 5). Cukurova University was in the first place in the number of top reviewers (n = 18). It was followed by Istanbul Technical University (n = 16) and Hacettepe University (n = 13). In terms of this parameter, no Turkish institution entered the top 100 in the world rankings (Table 6).

DISCUSSION
Turkey has a considerable scientific potential with its population of more than 80 million, a significant part of which is composed of young people. The value of this potential increases when you consider the universities and institutions that have deep roots and scientific traditions. The number of registered researchers on Publons, as well as Turkey's position in the world rankings, support this viewpoint. Nevertheless, considering the number of verified reviews and top reviewers, there is a scientific route that researchers and institutions in Turkey must take.
Turkey was in the 7th place in the world ranking with 57464 registered researchers. However, Turkey has fallen into the background in the world rankings according to verified reviews, verified reviews last 12 months, and top reviewers. Turkey is one of the leading countries in the number of researchers in parallel with its large population size, high number of universities and scientific institutions. This result reveals that Turkey has a considerable scientific potential that needs to be guided. On the other hand, the decline in the number of verified reviews and top reviewers leads us to think that Turkey is unable to completely and effectively use its large young population and high number of researchers in scientific platforms. Relevant authorities should research this issue and develop policies to improve it.
Ugur Canpolat took the first place in the number of verified reviews and Aytug Onan ranked first in the number of verified reviews in the last 12 months. The 13 researchers who were in the top 20 in terms of the total number of verified reviews were also ranked in the top 20 list, which was created based on the number of reviews performed in the last 12 months. These data can be interpreted in two ways. First, a significant portion of researchers who have participated in peer-review processes from the past has continued to work in this field in the last 12 months. It is clear that supporting peerreview processes by experienced researchers will improve scientific quality. Second, new researchers assisting peer review processes come from below and increase their experience, which will contribute ensuring scientific continuity. Scientific progress is a holistic process that cannot be limited to publishing an article. Peer review is extremely important in today's scholarly publications (10). Peer-review movements in the last 12 months have taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic period. It has become a necessity to support peer-review processes during this period when scientific production in the field of COVID-19 has peaked and rapid publication has become more important. Another point that should be emphasized is the proper evaluation of COVID-19 articles in terms of ethical principles. Therefore, more importance can be attributed to review processes during the pandemic period. The contribution of experienced researchers in these extraordinary circumstances can prevent the emergence of ethical problems. Peer review not only upgrades analytical skills, but also demonstrates many sights of publication ethics. This cover knowledge of plagiarism, authorship requirements, declaring potential conflicts of interest, and writing scientifically. As a result, peer review has been suggested as a component of the researcher education (11)(12)(13)(14). We consider that these researchers' sharing their experiences can guide and encourage new researchers who are at the beginning of the road.
Hacettepe University ranked first in Turkey and 14th in the world in terms of the number of researchers. In this category, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa and Çukurova University were also among the top 100 in the world rankings. This result reveals that institutions do not have difficulty in providing researchers quantitatively. These well-established institutions of Turkey continue to be a center of attraction for researchers. These institutions may come to the fore due to their strong and deep-rooted scientific traditions and wide opportunities they provide to researchers.
Istanbul Technical University ranked first in the number of verified reviews and Cukurova University was first in the number top reviewers. In either category, no institution was ranked among the top 100 in the world rankings. The emergence of this result suggests that although there is no obstacle in terms of the quantity of researchers, there are some qualitative issues. The importance of peer-review processes and the scientific contributions they provide to researchers should be explained in various symposiums and webinars. Support can be obtained from experienced editors in this field and researchers should be encouraged to participate in peerreview processes.
This study has some limitations. Some active researchers from Turkey may not be registered on Publons. Therefore, their publications and reviews can not be listed on Publons. Furthermore, some registered Publons researchers may not be actively using the platform. Peer reviews listed on Publons cannot be guaranteed to be of high-quality.
The impact of researchers can be measured using various indicators (15). However, there is no other metric for reviewers other than the parameters provided by Publons. Additionally, Publons offers an option where the Editor can recommend any researcher as an excellent reviewer, and provides an operation to reward the top reviewer recognition. Therefore, the use of Publons should be encouraged to ensure the continuation of the scientific development of researchers.
The right question is how to boost the potential of researchers. There is such a need for both Turkey and Central Asian Countries (4). The Publons is a project that allows experienced researchers to guide inexperienced and new reviewers. Experienced reviewers should be encoured in mentoring, and knowledge of these education should be raised among researchers in Turkey and Central Asia. Journal editors can assist researchers in these countries by running online courses on hypothesis creation, methodology design, statistics and peer review. Turkey and Central Asian countries should gradually create incentives and programs to develop the English level of their researchers. In addition, the diffusiveness of the Internet network should be expanded as much as possible in these countries. High English skills and Internet access are required for researchers' scientific progress (16,17). Turkey continues its scientific development by increasing the number of universities and researchers as well as providing more financial support to research. A growing number of researchers are contacting and collaborating with prestigious universities abroad. Turkey and Central Asian countries have socio-cultural ties from the past and it is a fact that Turkey is a few steps ahead of Central Asian countries in the scientific world. At this point, a reverse academic "Silk Road" should be created and highly qualified researchers and academics in Turkey should be brought together with their colleagues in Central Asian countries. It will be beneficial for the policymakers of the two sides to take initiative and provide support in conducting joint projects. Turkey and Central Asian countries can build university systems that work together. Thus, scientific collaborations and joint projects can be established between Turkey and Central Asian countries. Ensuring Central Asian countries to benefit from Turkey's experience will contribute to their scientific development