|
Abstract:
Objectives: This study
aimed to identify personal losses of the dismissed family medicine academics
and the four-year impact of the purge to the general scientific production of
Turkish academic family physicians following the decree laws in 2016.
Methods: A repeated
cross-sectional study was conducted covering the time before 2008, 2009-2012,
2013-2016, and 2017-2020. All actively-working assistant, associate, and full
professors of family medicine in Turkey as of 14th July 2016 and recently hired
academic staff after the coup attempt in 2016 were included in the study. The
primary outcome variable of the study was the total number of publications
listed in Google Scholar.
Results: Data of 212
academics were analyzed. Of the participants, 23 (10.8%) were dismissed with
the decree laws after the 2016 coup attempt, while 25 assistant professors were
hired later. It was observed that the mean number of publications increased
until 2016, followed by a decrease of 26.1% from 2013-2016 to 2017-2020.
Further analysis of the data demonstrated a significant decline in the number
of publications of the purged as well as non-purged individuals after 2016
(p<0.001). Although the purged academics were having relatively higher
performance indicators in the previous years, they experienced a 48.8% loss
(18.1% vs. 35.4%) in the number of publications after 2016 compared with their
peers (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The decree laws
had impacts on the dismissed academic family physicians as well as the general
family medicine academy as a whole. Mechanisms are needed to avoid interference
of political processes with the science population.
|
