Issue 89 · Spring 2019

Dear Readers,

Firstly, I would like to congratulate my colleagues for their success for the 89th issue of bilig with the hope that your contributions would go on. I have no doubt that the articles in this issue will make substantial contributions to the relevant fields of science and art. The articles that have passed the preliminary evaluations of the editorial board, which have been reformed by taking important emendation in the evaluation process of the referees and made the final evaluations with the carefulness of the editor before the publication, are completely a teamwork product. Hence, I would like to thank warmly not just for the authors of the articles, but also our editor, members of the editorial board, our dear referees, our technical team who contributed to the typesetting and printing.

The basic aim of bilig is to maintain its prestige as a periodical publication. The main eigenvalues which are effective in the formation and strengthening of this prestige of the journal are adopted both by the journal management and by the authors, referees and readers. At the beginning of these eigenvalues, there is an independent operation. The independent operation of the journal is the first priority of these eigenvalues. The process of acceptance of articles, editorial board and referee evaluations are conducted independently, and any decision is made only at the meetings of the editorial board. Based on this approach, another core value, the ethical operations is considered as the basis of all processes of our journal. Scientificness is a significant eigenvalue which guides the functioning of our journal. The rigorous evaluations of our referees enable us to make decisions regarding the scientific nature of the studies. Within the framework of the approach of bilig “being better than yesterday”, selectivity reinforces the prestige of the journal as a vital eigenvalue. Our journal aims to publish the articles which have the highest possible impact level following the effective editorial board and referee evaluation processes. Bilig, presented an increasing number of candidate article each year, publishes fewer articles as a result of its proper operation in an accord with these adopted eigenvalues.

Besides the positive feedback received from academic circles, the prestige of bilig is documented by the important national and international indexes. Our journal is a significant journal in the ULAKBİM TR Index and is considered as a role model for emerging journals. Every year, our journal strengthens its position in Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), which is part of Clarivate Analytics. Based on the Clarivate Analytics data, I would like to summarize the assessment of the current situation of Bilig Turkic World Journal of Social Sciences in SSCI as follows:

1. A total of 558 articles published between 2008 and 1818 are available in SSCI. It is noticed that an average of 51 articles have been published in a year. It is vital to reach an agreement regarding that the number of articles published in 2018 should be limited to 44 articles and that this number should not be exceeded.

2. There have been 216 citations to 558 published articles. Only 23 of these references are self-citation. The low self-citation could be considered as an indicator of the ethical functioning of our journal. The low number self-citation could be considered as an indicator of the ethical functioning of our journal.

3. It is noticed that citations to our journal and impact factor increase each year: 2010: 3 citations Impact Factor: 0,00001 2011: 6 citations Impact Factor: 0,00003 2012: 8 citations Impact Factor: 0,072 2013: 17 citations Impact Factor: 0,040 2014: 22 citations Impact Factor: 0,057 2015: 19 citations Impact Factor: 0,047 2016: 40 citations Impact Factor: 0,098 2017: 38 citations Impact Factor: 0,087

4. The datas stated above are the data of the relevant years for Journal Citation Reports. The analysis regarding 2018 has not yet been published; however, the 2018 impact factor is expected to be 0.10 in the preliminary analysis carried out by our editorial board on the available data for 2018.

It is obvious that there is a regularity in the number of articles published in each issue of bilig, Journal of Social Sciences of the Turkic World. Our journal aims to ensure that the total number of articles published in a year does not exceed 40 articles. In spite of the fact that the number of citations and impact factors of our journal is small, it shows a steady increase over the years. bilig is rising its prestige with its independent, scientific, ethical operations and selectivity day by day. I would like to express my gratitude to all of our partners for their support in our journey of “being better than yesterday”.

Prof. Dr. Ali Ekber ŞAHİN

Member of Editorial Board