--- name: alterlab-yok-tez description: "Searches YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi (tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi), Turkey's mandatory national graduate-thesis repository, for literature-review discovery and pre-proposal özgünlük (originality) checks. Drives the detailed search form (Tez Adı/Yazar/Danışman/Konu/Anahtar Kelime/Özet, tez türü, year range, language, İzinli/İzinsiz permission status) via the saidsurucu/yoktez-mcp tool, applies Turkish auto-stemming and ve/veya/içermesin boolean operators, runs paired Turkish+English queries, and emits Türkçe APA-7 thesis citations mapping Tez No to the published Yayın No. Use when the user wants to search Turkish theses, ara YÖK tez, check thesis novelty before approving a proposal, find dissertations by advisor (danışman) or university, dedupe a topic against existing tezler, or cite a YÖK thesis; respects the 2000-results-per-search cap and online-view-only access. For non-thesis Turkish journals use alterlab-dergipark or alterlab-trdizin. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite." license: MIT allowed-tools: Read Write Edit Bash(python:*) WebFetch compatibility: "No API key required — searches via the saidsurucu/yoktez-mcp connector (local `uvx` or hosted https://yoktezmcp.fastmcp.app/mcp) or by driving the public tez.yok.gov.tr Detaylı Tarama form; full-text is online-view-only, no bulk download" metadata: skill-author: AlterLab version: "1.0.0" last_updated: "2026-06-06" --- # YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi — Turkish National Thesis Search YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi (the Higher Education Council's *National Thesis Center*) is the single mandatory repository for every Turkish graduate thesis — *yüksek lisans* (master's), *doktora* (doctorate), *tıpta/diş/eczacılıkta uzmanlık* (medical/dental/pharmacy specialty), and *sanatta yeterlik* (art proficiency). It is the authoritative source for two faculty workflows this skill serves: 1. **Literature discovery** — finding existing Turkish dissertations for a review, by topic, *danışman* (advisor), university, or year. 2. **Pre-proposal *özgünlük* (originality) checks** — before a supervisor approves a student's thesis topic, scanning whether the same work already exists or is embargoed-but-registered. This skill is **discovery + metadata harvesting + citation**, not bulk full-text download (full text is online-view-only — see access model below). ## When to Use This Skill ``` YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi'nde "sürdürülebilir mimari" konulu tezleri ara Bir öğrencim "sanal prodüksiyon" üzerine doktora yapmak istiyor; daha önce yapılmış mı? Find every doctoral dissertation supervised by Prof. X at IEU Cite this YÖK thesis in APA 7 (Turkish) Is this thesis topic novel, or has it already been done in Turkey? ``` → Construct a Detaylı Tarama (detailed search) query, run it through the `yoktez-mcp` connector (or drive the form), dedupe results into a `{Tez No, year, university, danışman, title, izin}` table, and — when asked — emit a Türkçe APA-7 citation. ### Does NOT Trigger — route these elsewhere | Request | Correct skill | |---------|---------------| | Search **Turkish journal articles** on DergiPark | `alterlab-dergipark` | | Check a **journal's TR Dizin** index status / search the national citation index | `alterlab-trdizin` | | Look up an **academic's profile / supervised-thesis list / affiliation** on YÖK Akademik | `alterlab-yok-akademik` | | University **program admission statistics** (kontenjan, taban puan) on YÖK Atlas | `alterlab-yokatlas` | | Compute **doçentlik** (associate-professorship) eligibility points | `alterlab-docentlik-eligibility` | | Compute **akademik teşvik** (academic-incentive) score | `alterlab-akademik-tesvik` | | Hands-on **thesis writing / supervision / defense** coaching (chapters, viva) | `alterlab-thesis-supervisor` | | Build a **PRISMA systematic review** over biomedical/scientific databases | `alterlab-literature-review` | | Manage a **Zotero/BibTeX reference library** | `alterlab-citation-mgmt` | | **Türkçe APA-7 / TR Dizin house style** rules in general (not a thesis cite) | `alterlab-tr-academic-style` | This skill answers *"does this Turkish thesis exist / has this been done, and how do I cite it?"* — it does not write the thesis, judge journals, or score careers. --- ## The data path: yoktez-mcp There is **no official public API** for Ulusal Tez Merkezi. The maintained, verified community path is the **`saidsurucu/yoktez-mcp`** MCP server (MIT licensed). Prefer it over scraping. **Install (uv-first, matches the local toolchain):** ```bash uvx --from git+https://github.com/saidsurucu/yoktez-mcp yoktez-mcp ``` **Hosted connector:** `https://yoktezmcp.fastmcp.app/mcp` It exposes exactly two tools: | Tool | Purpose | Key parameters | |------|---------|----------------| | `search_yok_tez_detailed` | Detailed search → paginated thesis summaries + total count | `thesis_title`, `author_name`, `advisor_name`, `university_name`, `institute_name`, `department_name`, `discipline_name`, `thesis_number`, `subject_headings`, `index_terms`, `abstract_text`, `thesis_type`, `permission_status`, `thesis_status`, `language`, `institute_group`, `year_start`, `year_end`, `page`, `results_per_page` | | `get_yok_tez_document_markdown` | Fetch a permitted thesis PDF as Markdown | `detail_page_url`, `page_number` | These map one-to-one onto the public **Detaylı Tarama** form fields: *Tez Adı* (title), *Yazar* (author), *Danışman* (advisor), *Konu* (subject), *Anahtar Kelime* (keyword), *Özet* (abstract), *Tez No* (thesis number). If the connector is unavailable, the search form at `https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/` can be driven directly (a real browser is required — see `references/endpoints.md` for the gated-viewer caveat). **Never invent a JSON/REST endpoint — none is published.** A small offline helper, `scripts/yok_tez_query.py`, builds a normalized query spec and the matching `search_yok_tez_detailed` argument dict from a plain description (handy for the stemming/boolean rules below) without any network call. See **Search craft**. --- ## Search craft (apply these automatically) The full rule set with worked examples is in [`references/search_syntax.md`](references/search_syntax.md). The essentials: 1. **Search Turkish roots, not inflected forms** — the engine auto-stems Turkish, so query `sürdürülebilir` rather than `sürdürülebilirliğin`. Diacritics (ç ğ ı İ ö ş ü) need **not** be normalized by the user. 2. **Boolean operators are `ve` / `veya` / `içermesin`** (and / or / must-not-contain), not `AND`/`OR`/`NOT`. Phrase-match by keeping words adjacent. 3. **Run BOTH a Turkish and an English query.** English terms only hit the *English* title/abstract/keyword fields, so an all-Turkish query silently misses theses written/indexed in English, and vice-versa. 4. **Search across `Konu`, `Tez Adı`, and `Özet`** for topic coverage — a title may not name the concept the abstract develops. --- ## Originality / supervision check (the repeatable recipe) When a supervisor asks *"has this thesis topic already been done?"*, do **not** run a naive open-access-only search — that misses the most important near-duplicates. Instead: 1. Build paired TR+EN queries (above) across `Konu`, `Tez Adı`, and `abstract_text`. 2. Constrain `thesis_type` (e.g. *Doktora*) and a recent `year_start`–`year_end` window if the user gave one. 3. **Set `permission_status` to "Tümü" (All)** so *İzinsiz* (restricted, abstract-only) theses still surface — embargoed work is exactly what a naive search hides, and it is still prior art for a proposal. 4. Return a **deduplicated table**: `{Tez No, year, university, danışman, title, izin}`, sorted newest-first, for the supervisor to scan. 5. State explicitly that this is *registry coverage*, not a plagiarism / text- similarity score (that is iThenticate/Turnitin territory, out of scope here). --- ## Access model (set correct expectations) - **Full text is online-view-only** for *İzinli* (permitted) theses — viewable in the browser, **no photocopy / bulk download**. The `get_yok_tez_document_markdown` tool works only on permitted theses. - **Abstracts (*özet*) are always available**, even when full text is embargoed. - ***İzinsiz* (restricted) theses** show metadata + abstract only; the full text is reachable in print via **TÜBESS** / inter-library loan through a university library. - **Pre-2006 closed theses** can be opened by the author submitting a *Tez Yayımlama İzin Belgesi* (thesis-publication permission document). - **Legal basis:** Law 7100 Art. 10 and Higher Education Law 2547 Additional Art. 40 — theses are electronically accessible by default unless an authorized *gizlilik* (confidentiality) decision applies. YÖK's FAQ states **no fixed maximum embargo length**; do not assert a "12-month cap." Full detail in [`references/access_legal.md`](references/access_legal.md). --- ## Caps and bulk harvest - **Hard cap: 2000 results per search.** For broad topics, split the query by **year range**, **university**, or **institute** to stay under it, then merge and dedupe locally. - For large/repeated harvests, the cleaned community mirror **tezara.org** ("Tez Arama ve Metaveri Analizi Platformu") offers structured export and sidesteps the per-search cap; see [`references/endpoints.md`](references/endpoints.md) for what is and isn't verified about it. - Bulk Turkish↔English query expansion, advisor-name normalization, and CSV dedup are good fits to offload to a **local LLM** (qwen3-coder / gemma4) rather than burning API calls — this work is bulky, repetitive, and privacy-neutral. --- ## Citing a YÖK thesis (Türkçe APA-7) Map the YÖK **Tez No** directly to APA's **Yayın No.** (publication number). The `scripts/yok_tez_query.py --cite` mode formats both states; rules and more examples in [`references/citation_apa7.md`](references/citation_apa7.md). - **Published / permitted** (has a Yayın No.): > Soyad, A. (Yıl). *Tez başlığı* (Yayın No. _NNNNNN_) [Tez türü, Üniversite > Adı]. YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi. - **Unpublished / restricted**: > Soyad, A. (Yıl). *Tez başlığı* [Yayımlanmamış tez türü tezi]. Üniversite Adı. Optionally also emit BibTeX `@phdthesis` / `@mastersthesis` with `note = {YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi, Tez No. NNNNNN}`. --- ## Self-check before reporting - Did you run **both** a Turkish and an English query? An all-Turkish search is not complete. - For an originality check, did you set `permission_status = Tümü` so *İzinsiz* theses surfaced? Restricted ≠ nonexistent. - Did any broad search hit the **2000 cap**? If `total` ≈ 2000, split and re-run — you are almost certainly truncated. - Are citations using **Tez No → Yayın No.** with the correct *published* vs *unpublished* template? - Did you state that registry coverage ≠ a text-similarity / plagiarism score? --- ## References - [`references/endpoints.md`](references/endpoints.md) — verified vs. unverified endpoints, the yoktez-mcp tool surface, the gated TezGoster viewer, tezara.org. - [`references/search_syntax.md`](references/search_syntax.md) — auto-stemming, `ve`/`veya`/`içermesin`, TR+EN pairing, field-targeting, worked queries. - [`references/access_legal.md`](references/access_legal.md) — İzinli/İzinsiz, TÜBESS, pre-2006 opening, Law 7100 / 2547 legal basis, embargo facts. - [`references/citation_apa7.md`](references/citation_apa7.md) — Türkçe APA-7 thesis templates and the Tez No → Yayın No. mapping. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.