Turkish Higher Education Council Selects Elsevier’s Scopus for National Research Evaluation

Elsevier, a global leader in advanced information and decision support in science and healthcare, and the Council of Higher Education of Türkiye (Yükseköğretim Kurulu, YÖK), today announced that YÖK will adopt Elsevier’s Scopus database as its official tool for monitoring and evaluating research publications, effective from 2026.

Scopus will replace the index previously used in Türkiye’s national academic performance assessments. The move represents a strategic step toward a more comprehensive, transparent, and internationally aligned approach to research evaluation. It also supports YÖK’s ambition to strengthen the global visibility and competitiveness of Turkish higher education.

YÖK’s decision reflects its commitment to measuring research performance against internationally recognized benchmarks. By basing its evaluations on Scopus’s broad and inclusive coverage of peer-reviewed literature across science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, YÖK aims to assess research output more holistically and consistently.

Scopus is widely recognized as a global standard in scholarly bibliometrics. It serves as the exclusive source of bibliometric data for Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings and related analyses, and has been used by the QS World University Rankings for its research indicators for more than a decade. Independent comparisons of citation databases indicate that Scopus’s coverage is large and robust relative to other major citation indices, providing a strong foundation for national-level research evaluation.

Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar, President of YÖK, commented on the change: “Enhancing the national and international competitiveness of our universities is one of the most important missions of the Council of Higher Education. In particular, it is gratifying to see our research universities rise in global rankings. As of 2026, Scopus will be used in monitoring and evaluation processes.”

Floortje Flippo, Regional Vice President - RI & Engineering Solutions Sales at Elsevier, said: “We are honored that YÖK has selected Scopus to support its national research evaluation framework. This decision underscores the trust placed in Scopus’s high-quality data and analytics to help institutions understand research performance and identify opportunities for improvement. We look forward to working alongside Türkiye’s higher education community to support their ambitions on the global stage.”

As the world’s largest curated abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, Scopus contains more than 100 million records from more than 7,000 publishers worldwide, including 2.4 billion cited references and over 19.6 million author profiles. Its rich metadata and analytical capabilities help institutions track research productivity, collaboration, and impact, supporting evidence-based decision-making at institutional and national levels.

About the Council of Higher Education

Established in 1981, the Council of Higher Education (Yükseköğretim Kurulu, YÖK) is an autonomous public body responsible for the planning, coordination, and governance of higher education in Türkiye. YÖK oversees more than 200 universities and higher education institutions across the country, ensuring academic quality and fostering strategic initiatives to advance Türkiye’s higher education system. Its mandate includes developing policies for higher education, promoting research and internationalization, and implementing nationwide quality assurance mechanisms.

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