The Russian Conference Outbreak: Description, Causes and Possible Policy Measures
Research Article
How to Cite
Sterligov I.A. The Russian Conference Outbreak: Description, Causes and Possible Policy Measures. Science Management: Theory and Practice. 2021. Vol. 3. No. 2. P. 222-251. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/smtp.2021.3.2.10 (in Russ.).
Abstract
This paper (in Russian) deals with the topic of excessive growth of conference papers of Russian authors in Scopus and Web of Science databases. We present international comparisons of publication, citation and internationalization trends for conference papers for 50 countries to show that anomalous growth for Russia in recent years is coupled with rapidly decreasing normalized citation and internationalization rates. We proceed to sectoral analysis to show that the universities are mostly affected, not the Russian academy of sciences, and hypothesize that such behavior stems from increased government evaluation pressureand simplistic bibliometrics usage, which conforms to the trend observed in other countries. The paper also includes a brief review of the market for organizing local conferences and indexing them in the Web of Science and Scopus via major international publishers, and the notion of virtual (pre-epidemic) predatory conferences. We conclude with several policy recommendations.
Keywords:
conferences, journals, Web of Science, Scopus, bibliometrics, science policy, research evaluation, universities
References
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6. Pisár, P. and Šipikal, M. (2017). Negative Effects of Performance Based Funding of Universities: The Case of Slovakia. NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy. Vol. 10, issue 2. Pp. 171–189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nispa-2017-0017
7. Vanecek, J. and Pecha, O. (2020). Fast growth of the number of proceedings papers in atypical fields in the Czech Republic is a likely consequence of the national performance-based research funding system. Research Evaluation. Vol. 29, issue 3. Pp. 245–262. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvaa005
8. Purnell, P.J. (2021). Conference proceedings publications in bibliographic databases: a case study of countries in Southeast Asia. Scientometrics. Vol. 126. Pp. 355–387. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03773-2
9. Marina, T. and Sterligov, I. (2021). Prevalence of Potentially Predatory Publishing in Scopus on the Country Level. Scientometrics (online first). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-03899-x
10. Sterligov I. (2021). Bibliometrics in University Evaluation: a Global Experience. Commissioned report. Elsevier. URL: https://elsevierscience.ru/info/re-systems-overview/ (accessed 08.05.2021).
2. Vrettas, G. and Sanderson, M. (2015). Conferences versus journals in computer science. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. Vol. 66. Pp. 2674–2684. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23349
3. Lisée, C., Larivière, V. and Archambault, É. (2008). Conference proceedings as a source of scientific information: A bibliometric analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Vol. 59, Issue 11. Pp. 1776–1784. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20888
4. Guskov, A. E., Kosyakov, D. V. and Selivanova, I. V. (2018). Boosting research productivity in top Russian universities: the circumstances of breakthrough. Scientometrics. Vol. 117. Pp. 1053–1080. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2890-8
5. Mokhnacheva, Y. V. and Tsvetkova, V. A. (2019). Russia in the world array of scientific publications. Vestnik Rossijskoj Akademii Nauk. Vol. 89, No. 8. Pp. 820–830. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31857/S0869-5873898820-830
6. Pisár, P. and Šipikal, M. (2017). Negative Effects of Performance Based Funding of Universities: The Case of Slovakia. NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy. Vol. 10, issue 2. Pp. 171–189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nispa-2017-0017
7. Vanecek, J. and Pecha, O. (2020). Fast growth of the number of proceedings papers in atypical fields in the Czech Republic is a likely consequence of the national performance-based research funding system. Research Evaluation. Vol. 29, issue 3. Pp. 245–262. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvaa005
8. Purnell, P.J. (2021). Conference proceedings publications in bibliographic databases: a case study of countries in Southeast Asia. Scientometrics. Vol. 126. Pp. 355–387. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03773-2
9. Marina, T. and Sterligov, I. (2021). Prevalence of Potentially Predatory Publishing in Scopus on the Country Level. Scientometrics (online first). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-03899-x
10. Sterligov I. (2021). Bibliometrics in University Evaluation: a Global Experience. Commissioned report. Elsevier. URL: https://elsevierscience.ru/info/re-systems-overview/ (accessed 08.05.2021).
Article
Received: 22.03.2021
Accepted: 29.06.2021
Citation Formats
Other cite formats:
APA
Sterligov, I. A. (2021). The Russian Conference Outbreak: Description, Causes and Possible Policy Measures. Science Management: Theory and Practice, 3(2), 222-251. https://doi.org/10.19181/smtp.2021.3.2.10
Section
Science and pseudo-science
