Analysis and assessment of the thematic distribution of Russian medical journals in Scopus

Abstract

Russian medical journals are presented in the Scopus database in a limited number, although demonstrating a significant increase over the past 2 years, featured about 70 journals at the end of 2017 (including those coming from Medline, which are not viewed as indexed by Scopus). This value cannot be considered representative of Russian medical science, particularly in comparison with the total number of medical journals and Russian journals of other subjects in Scopus. Therefore, it seems important to assess the possibility of expanding the presence of Russian medical titles in Scopus, as well as to understand which medical fields or areas are poorly represented or not covered by Russian journals. The Medical Section of the Association of Science Editors and Publishers (ASEP) is currently working to identify the most promising journals and help them to prepare for inclusion in Scopus. To this end, a preliminary selection out of 1000 journals was carried out to reveal 335 titles that, according to the authors, can be classified as major Russian medical scientific journals. These journals are either indexed in Scopus, or seen as good candidates for this database. Subsequently, the selected journals were analysed in terms of their subject classification according to the Scopus All Science Journal Classification Code List (ASJC). The key objectives were (1) to determine the subject classification of those Russian titles that, according to preliminary estimates, can meet the needs of Russian researchers in presenting their results in Scopus and (2) to identify those journals that can fill the gap of certain subject areas under represented by Russian journals. Our study has revealed that Russian titles are not distributed homogeneously among clinical, medical, biological and other related thematic areas. Among the 335 journals, 2/3 represent clinical medicine in 49 categories, with the remaining 82 categories accounting for 1/3 of the titles on related subjects. This data shows that publications on medicine in Russian journals are dispersed across various journals. Along with this, a significant part of related subject area journals is well-represented in Scopus. The journals selected as a result of the research were included in the preliminary list of titles considered as candidates for the State Support Programme that began in 2017.