Transformation of the Index of Foreign Journals in the “White List”
Research Article
Acknowledgments
The article was prepared according to the research plan of the State Public Scientific Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the RAS within the framework of the scientific project “Development of a Model for the Functioning of a Scientific Library in the Information Ecosystem of Open Science”, No. 122041100150-3.
How to Cite
Volkova I.N. Transformation of the Index of Foreign Journals in the “White List”. Science Management: Theory and Practice. 2025. Vol. 7. No. 3. P. 123-140. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/smtp.2025.7.3.10 (in Russ.).
Abstract
The article discusses the reasons for the emergence of the “White List”, which is a set of recommended journals for assessing the publication activity of researchers. In November 2024, it was announced that the Unified List of Academic Publications would be created based on the “White List”. Due to the fact that this list will be transformed in the near future, our goal was to monitor changes in the index of foreign journals in the “White List”, since they constitute the majority in this list, taking into account two samples (December 2024 and February 2025). We have studied such indicators as country and publisher, journal’s open access status, indexing in databases, thematic focus, as well as the number of foreign journals that have published works by authors with Russian affiliations for the period 2022–2025. To obtain much of this data, a JSON file from the website of the Russian Center for Scientific Information, where the “White List” is located, was not enough. Therefore, in order to extract the missing information, the open resource OpenAlex was used to construct API requests to the database. The study has yielded the following data: the leading publishers are Springer, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis with an open access share of 21–31%, indicating a hybrid open-access model. The DOAJ indexes 6,866 journals featured in the “White List”. Half of the foreign journals in the latter one focus on such subject areas as medicine (22%), social sciences (21%) and engineering (10%). Only one-third of the studied journals have published works by Russian authors in 2022–2025, and this figure is decreasing year on year. We have compared the two samples and found out that no changes were detected in the “White List” of the journals. This is quite natural since the monitoring began immediately after the announcement of the development of the Unified List of Academic Publications. We have described the starting point regarding the index of journals in the “White List”, and in further observations it will be possible to track even minor changes on the path to transforming the “White List” into the Unified List of Academic Publications.
Keywords:
“White List”, foreign journals, open access, research activity evaluation system
References
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24. Tsvetkova V. A. Evaluation of scientific activity according to a model based on lists of scientific journals. Culture: Theory and Practice=Kul’tura: Teoriya i Praktika. 2024;(2):6. (In Russ.).
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2. Khokhlov A. R. RAS proposals for a new system of evaluating the performance of scientific research. In: Advanced research of the Kuban : Collection of materials of the Annual Reporting Conference of Grant Holders of the Kuban Science Foundation (Sochi, June 20–22, 2022). Krasnodar : Kuban Science Foundation; 2022. P. 24–28. (In Russ.).
3. Polikhina N. A., Trostyanskaya I. B., Grishakina E. G., Parkacheva V. L. Evaluating the results of scientific research: The role and capabilities of journals of private universities. Science Editor and Publisher. 2023;8(S1):16–31. (In Russ.). DOI 10.24069/SEP-23-10.
4. Gureev V. N., Mazov N. A., Metelkin D. V. Some reasons for the Russian authors transition to foreign journals. Science Management: Theory and Practice. 2022;4(3):20–34. (In Russ.). DOI 10.19181/smtp.2022.4.3.2.
5. Kochetkov D. M. Russian journal Whitelist: Questions to be answered. Science Editor and Publisher. 2022;7(2):185–190. (In Russ.). DOI 10.24069/SEP-22-48.
6. Semenov E. V. A national network of academic journals as a system: Problems before and after sanctions. Universe of Russia. Sociology. Ethnology. 2023;32(3):145–166. (In Russ.). DOI 10.17323/1811-038X-2023-32-3-145-166.
7. Mokhnacheva Yu. V. Lists of journals and ratings of Russian publications: Inconsistencies and possible ways to eliminate them. Science Management: Theory and Practice. 2024;6(2):147–167. (In Russ.). DOI 10.19181/smtp.2024.6.2.11.
8. Tretyakova O. V. National lists of academic journals: An overview of world practice. Journal of Institutional Studies. 2023;15(3):20–39. (In Russ.). DOI 10.17835/2076-6297.2023.15.3.020-039.
9. Tsvetkova V. A., Kalashnikova G. V. Library and information sphere through the prism of scientific journals. Scientific and Technical Libraries. 2023;(9):32–50. (In Russ.). DOI 1027-3689-2023-9-32-50.
10. Kurakova N. G., Tsvetkova L. A. Categorization of the Higher Attestation Commission List and its place in the national system for evaluating the effectiveness of research and development. The Health Care Manager=Menedzher zdravookhraneniya. 2022;(10):4–13. (In Russ.). DOI 10.21045/1811-0185-2022-10-4-13.
11. Morgunova G. V. The prospect of creating in Russia its own scientometric resources. Science Management: Theory and Practice. 2023;5(3):22–30. (In Russ.). DOI 10.19181/smtp.2023.5.3.2.
12. Sivertsen G. The Norwegian model in Norway. Journal of Data and Information Science. 2018;3(4):3–19. DOI 10.2478/jdis-2018-0017.
13. Korytkowski P., Kulczycki E. Examining how country-level science policy shapes publication patterns: The case of Poland. Scientometrics. 2019;119(3):1519–1543. DOI 10.1007/s11192-019-03092-1.
14. Wang J., Halffman W., Zhang Yu. H. Sorting out journals: The proliferation of journal lists in China. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 2023;74(10):1207–1228. DOI 10.1002/asi.24816.
15. Pölönen J., Guns R., Kulczycki E., Sivertsen G., Engels T. C. E. National lists of scholarly publication channels: An overview and recommendations for their construction and maintenance. Journal of Data and Information Science. 2021;6(1):50–86. DOI 10.2478/jdis-2021-0004.
16. Polilova T. A. Bibliographic database ratings and white lists. Russian Digital Libraries Journal. 2022;25(6):640–670. (In Russ.). DOI 10.26907/1562-5419-2022-25-6-640-670.
17. Kirillova O. V. On changes in the state scientific publishing policy, the “White List”, and the prospects for the development of Russian scholarly journals. Science Editor and Publisher. 2024;9(2):124–133. (In Russ.). DOI 10.24069/SEP-24-22.
18. Tretyakova O. V. Russian experience with national rankings of academic journals: Mistakes, challenges, and prospects. Terra Economicus. 2023;21(3):102–121. (In Russ.). DOI 10.18522/2073-6606-2023-21-3-102-121.
19. Sidorenko M. Yu. Main trends in development of editorial and publishing activity in Russia in the context of international turbulence. The Problems of Scientist and Scientific Groups Activity=Problemy deyatel'nosti uchenogo i nauchnykh kollektivov. 2023;(9):153–163. (In Russ.). DOI 10.24412/2414-9241-2023-9-153-163.
20. Dyachenko E. L., Guba K. S., Potapov I. V., Mironenko A. Yu. Comparison of approaches to stratification of Russian journals: Scientometric indicators, international databases and national lists. Scientific and Technical Information Processing. Series 1: Organization and Methodology of Information Work=Nauchno-tekhnicheskaya informatsiya. Seriya 1: Organizatsiya i metodika informatsionnoi raboty. 2024;(5):13–21. (In Russ.). DOI 10.36535/0548-0019-2024-05-3.
21. Saarela M., Kärkkäinen T., Lahtonen T., Rossi T. Expert-based versus citation-based ranking of scholarly and scientific publication channels. Journal of Informetrics. 2016;10(3):693–718. DOI 10.1016/j.joi.2016.03.004.
22. Kulczycki E., Rozkosz E. A. Does an expert-based evaluation allow us to go beyond the Impact Factor? Experiences from building a ranking of national journals in Poland. Scientometrics. 2017;111(1):417–442. DOI 10.1007/s11192-017-2261-x.
23. Tretyakova O. V. Russian sociological journals in international scientometric databases: What should be taken into account in a new evaluation system. Universe of Russia. Sociology. Ethnology. 2022;31(4):100–121. (In Russ.). DOI 10.17323/1811-038X-2022-31-4-100-121.
24. Tsvetkova V. A. Evaluation of scientific activity according to a model based on lists of scientific journals. Culture: Theory and Practice=Kul’tura: Teoriya i Praktika. 2024;(2):6. (In Russ.).
25. Volkova I. “White List” journals data obtained from OpenAlex [dataset]. Zenodo. 2025. May 13. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.15392888.
Article
Received: 13.05.2025
Accepted: 25.09.2025
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Other cite formats:
APA
Volkova, I. N. (2025). Transformation of the Index of Foreign Journals in the “White List”. Science Management: Theory and Practice, 7(3), 123-140. https://doi.org/10.19181/smtp.2025.7.3.10
Section
Information Environment and Issues of Digitalization
