Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the research efficiency of the research universities in Türkiye and to identify potential areas for improvement and to examine the factors affecting efficiency. Design/methodology/approach: For this purpose, data envelopment analysis was conducted with the output-oriented Banker, Charnes and Cooper (BCC) model with five-year article and citation counts data of 23 universities which were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection. Findings: The findings of the study show that only eight research universities are efficient. There are areas of development for universities to be effective. In addition, the findings of the regression analysis conducted to reveal the determinants of efficiency revealed significant results. Research limitations/implications: Research universities in Türkiye should allocate their resources in a way to increase research performance. Policies should be developed to increase the number of publications and, more importantly, the quality of publications. Originality/value: Potential areas for improvement were identified for the universities to become efficient. The results revealed that both publication quality and productivity need to be improved, but there is more room for improvement in publication quality. Regression analysis with the determinants of efficiency scores shows that the development level of the region where the universities are located has a positive effect on the research efficiency of universities. In addition, it is concluded that smaller universities have better efficiency scores.