Askeri Tarih Bülteni’nin İçerik Analizi
Esra Ecem Şahin, Adem BaşpınarBu makalede Askeri Tarih Bülteni’nin içerik analizi yapılmıştır. Analiz birimi olarak; yazarların cinsiyet dağılımı, akademik veya askerî unvanları, kurumları; makale konularının ilgisi, türleri, dönemleri, bölgeleri gibi unsurlar kullanılmıştır. Daha önce bu kapsamda bir çalışma yapılmadığından bu makalenin alana önemli bir katkı sağlaması beklenmektedir. Derginin 1976-2020 yılları arasında tüm sayılarına ulaşılmış, toplam 840 makale taranmıştır. Araştırma içerik analizi yönteminin frekans analizi tekniği kullanılarak gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırma için gerekli olan veriler makalelerin okunması ile elde edilmiştir. Sonuç olarak, derginin amaç ve kapsam ifadesinde yer alan “Türk askerî tarihi başta olmak üzere dünya askerî tarihinin bilimsel ölçüler içerisinde aydınlatılmasını ve yapılan akademik çalışmaların okuyucu ile buluşturulmasını amaçlamaktadır.” açıklamasına uygun şekilde makalelerin konularının askerî tarih ile ilişkisi olup olmadığına dair kategorilendirme yapılmıştır. Buna uygun olarak makalelerin büyük bir çoğunluğunun; savaş, antlaşmalar, mübadele, uluslararası ilişkiler gibi askerî tarihin kapsamına giren konular olduğu görülmüştür.
Content Analysis of Askeri Tarih Bülteni (Military History Bulletin)
Esra Ecem Şahin, Adem BaşpınarThis article conducts a content analysis of Askeri Tarih Bülteni (Military History Bulletin) and employs the gender distribution, academic titles/military ranks, and institutions of the authors as units of analysis. Other elements, such as the relevance of topics, types, periods, and regions, of the articles were considered. The study intends to make a significant contribution to the field due to the lack of prior studies on the journal. All issues were accessed, and 840 articles were examined. Research was conducted using the frequency analysis technique of the content analysis method. The results led to a classification of whether the topics of the articles were related to military history in accordance with the statement of the journal’s purpose and scope, that is, “It aims to illuminate the world military history, especially the Turkish military history in scientific terms and to bring together the academic studies with the readers.”.
To a large extent, the conveyor of academic military history and publishing in Turkey has been the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). In this sense, TAF is the most significant institution that governs military history through its periodicals. Understanding the features presented by military history in Turkey is considered impossible without addressing the TAF itself and its publications. Within this framework, this article analyzes the Askeri Tarih Bülteni (Military History Bulletin), which is the main periodical on academic military history in Turkey. Specifically, Askeri Tarih Bülteni is one of the most significant periodicals published by the General Staff of TAF for 44 years. As an academic actor in the field, the TAF warrants scholarly attention.
This study profiles the publications of Askeri Tarih Bülteni between 1976 and 2020 and conducts a procedure for content analysis adapted from various studies that employed this method. All issues of the journal published have been scanned. However, the journal is unavailable on any online database; as such, a computer-based word coding program cannot be used. Instead, the study created a data collection and processing form, where information on each publication was entered into the form.
Qualitative and quantitative analyses were then conducted. Frequency and percentage calculations were used for quantitative analyses, or, specifically, the bibliometric processes, whereas classifications, such as regional ones, were applied to qualitative analyses.
The study noted a lack of increase or decrease in the number of articles published per year. Therefore, the study was unable to reach conclusions or interpretations in terms of bibliometrics based on the number of articles published by the journal per year.
Out of 837 authors, females compose 12.19% (n = 102) of the sample, whereas the majority (87.81%) comprises male authors. Articles whose authors are institutions or are unspecified were excluded from analysis.
Moreover, we classified articles with respect to the historical period covered. The majority of manuscripts fall within the scope of the Modern Age (662 articles; 78.8%) followed by the New Age with 43 publications (5.1%).
Moreover, the articles were grouped according to geographical region. Accordingly, 475 (56.5%) of the publications covered the Anatolian region followed by the Balkans (n = 65; 7.6%) and Europe (n = 57; 6.6%). The least represented region is America with seven publications (0.8%).
According to topic, the majority of the publications are related to politics (n = 538; 64%) followed by institutions (n = 142; 15.2%), culture (n = 127; 15.2%), and international relations (n = 91; 10.0%).
Citations were then used to evaluate the issues. Citations were undetected in the Web of Science or Scopus indexes. For this reason, citations to the journal on Google Scholar were scanned. The study identified a total of 112 citations to the journal.
As a publication of the TAF, the majority of authors (n = 107; 12.8%) were members of the Turkish Armed Forces followed by members of Gazi University and the Turkish Military History Commission with 19 articles each.
Askeri Tarih Bülteni began its publication in 1976 and maintained this status by publishing two issues per year. In 2003, the journal became a peer-reviewed national journal, which consequently changed its name to Askerî Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi (Journal of Military History Studies). In 2017, the decision was made to publish one issue per year; since then, it continued to publish on an annual basis. The current study, which covers Askeri Tarih Bülteni, conducted content analysis by adapting the procedures used in previous studies to extract the publishing profiles of all articles published in the journal between 1976 and 2020.
The results indicated that the objective of Askeri Tarih Bülteni was to establish the general status of all articles in the archive for the current Askerî Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi and to obtain general information about the journal for scholars who intend to conduct studies on military history. In addition, detailed author information remains lacking, as observed in articles published in the journal in 2020. Thus, resolving this issue is considered to provide convenience for researchers and readers. Studies that employ content analysis in Turkey are lacking; moreover, resources on military history are insufficient. Thus, understanding and obtaining detailed information on this journal, which has written extensively on military history, will be an important resource for the two abovementioned fields and will provide substantial assistance for readers and individuals who want to follow it.
