Modern science metrics and methods of its improvement

Abstract

Objective. The existing approach to assessing the publication activity of scientific, higher educational institutions and scientists (including through the Russian Scientific Citation Index) does not reflect the true effectiveness of their scientific activities. Key indicators for assessing publication activity - the citation index and the Hirsch index are formed on the basis of the data provided by the RSCI and cannot reliably establish the authorship of the publication, the contribution of each coauthor, and the methodology for accruing indicators of scientific activity requires serious adjustment and improvement. The existing methodology for assessing publication activity stimulates multiple coauthorship in publications, to which the co-authors are often not directly related, which distorts the science-metric indicators, stimulates immutation science and increases citation indicators due to unjustified self-citation. In this regard, the subject of the study is the state of scientifometry and the methods used to evaluate publication activity. The aim of the study is to develop a methodology for assessing the publication activity of authors and organizations. Method. As a method of research, system analysis, geometric modeling, and mathematical calculations are used. Result. As a result, a methodology for evaluating scientifometric indicators was developed, a methodology for calculating a new index of publication activity was developed, a geometric and mathematical model of the new index was presented. Conclusion. The developed index of publication activity makes it possible to more accurately take into account all indicators of the effectiveness of scientific activity: the credibility of the journal and the author, the total number of citations; co-authorship; publication activity of the last five years, etc.