Research Publications from the ATS MECOR Program in Turkiye

The American Thoracic Society (ATS) Methods in Epidemiologic, Clinical, and Operations Research (MECOR) Program aims to build research capacity in low and middle-income countries. MECOR has three levels, during which students learn to develop a research protocol and write a manuscript. MECOR Turkiye has been offered every year since 2008.

The aim of this paper is to report the number and impact of published articles generated from research questions developed by students in levels 1, 2, and 3 of the ATS MECOR Program in Turkiye between 2008 and 2018.

We collected the research questions developed in all levels of the ATS MECOR Program in Turkiye between 2008 and 2018. We searched Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, and ResearchGate in April 2022 to see how many of these research questions were published as articles and, if published, in which journals.

Of the 176 research questions collected, 49 had been developed in level 1, 82 had been developed in level 2, and 45 had been developed in level 3. Of those 176 research questions, 55 (31.3%) generated articles that were accepted for publication. The frequency of published articles based on MECOR-developed research questions increased linearly as the course level in which they were developed increased (18.4% in level 1, 30% in level 2, 46.7% in level 3; P = 0.012; linear-by-linear association, P = 0.003). The median time from the development of the research question to publication was three years overall and did not differ significantly among the course levels (P = 0.36). Of the research questions developed, 43 were published in Science Citation Index or Science Citation Index Expanded-indexed journals.

Acceptance of an article for publication is one way to measure the impact of the ATS MECOR Program. Our data describe significant research output among our participants, which increases with their length of participation in the program.