National Thesis Center YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi

Overview

The National Thesis Center (Turkish: YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi) is the official national repository for academic theses and dissertations in Turkey, operated by the Council of Higher Education (Yükseköğretim Kurulu; YÖK) and accessible online at tez.yok.gov.tr. It is Turkey's only center where master's degree theses, doctoral dissertations, specializations in medicine and dentistry, and proficiency in arts theses are collected and made available for full-text research.

History and Founding

The Council of Higher Education (YÖK) was established in the aftermath of the September 12, 1980 military coup in Turkey to reorganize higher education. YÖK is headquartered in Bilkent, Ankara. The National Thesis Center was developed as a digital service to centralize access to Turkish academic thesis literature, and has grown substantially in recent years. By 2020, the center recorded 87,587,547 page views annually, with over six million users benefiting from the system—a 20% increase over the previous year.

As part of YÖK's Open Science initiative, the National Thesis Center has been integrated into a broader YÖK Open Science System, which aims to host all scientific publications produced in Turkey and improve their international visibility. In this framework, all theses in the YÖK Thesis Center were transferred to the Open Science System to allow access by other international systems.

Collections and Holdings

The National Thesis Center holds full-text theses and dissertations from Turkish universities, spanning all academic disciplines including arts, engineering, health and medicine, humanities, mathematics, science, social sciences, and technology. Thesis' are indexed with title, abstract, subject, institution, and author details. Many thesis have an English title and abstract in addition to their Turkish content. Access is tiered: permitted theses are available in full text, while restricted theses may be accessed in print through university libraries via the TÜBESS document supply system.

Access and Usage

The National Thesis Center is freely accessible online. Users can search by keyword, subject (Eğitim ve Öğretim, etc.), thesis type (master's, doctoral, etc.), access type, and language. The portal is available in Turkish, with partial English-language functionality. YÖK is located at Üniversiteler Mahallesi, 1600. Cadde No:10, 06539 Bilkent/Ankara.