Russian University Teachers’ Perceptions of Scientometrics

Andrei V Grinëv,Victoria V Lobatyuk,Daria S Bylieva

doi:10.3390/publications9020022

Andrei V Grinëv, Victoria V Lobatyuk + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/publications9020022

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Abstract

This article is devoted to the attitude of Russian university teachers toward scientometrics and its indicators, which have been imposed on them by university administrations and the state since 2012. In addition to substantiating the problem’s urgency, the article contains a brief critical outline of the main scientometric parameters and their application in practice in Russia. To evaluate this, 283 people from leading universities in Russia (included in Program 5-100) were questioned. As the study showed, faculties of Russian universities understand the specifics of scientometrics, relate to it relatively positively, and over the past years have been able to adapt to the new requirements of the administration regarding implementing scientometric tasks and standards. The higher the position and scholarly qualification of a respondent, the more complete the knowledge about scientometrics. Scholars in the humanities know and relate comparatively better to scientometrics than representatives of technical and general scientific specialties.

Highlights

Digitalization affects increasing areas of human life; quantitative indicators are becoming dominant in areas that previously seemed not intended for this [1]
Scientometric data are widely used in various countries, and in Russia, since 2012, there has been a real fetishization of scientometric parameters, at least in the country’s leading universities
In Russia, the bibliographic information and the results of its mathematical processing obtained from all three databases (WoS, Scopus, Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI)) are actively used in planning scientific work and reports, distributing grants, and encouraging leading scientists and scientific departments of universities and institutes, with their ranking and financing depending on the achieved scientometric indicators

Summary

Introduction

Digitalization affects increasing areas of human life; quantitative indicators are becoming dominant in areas that previously seemed not intended for this [1]. Scientometrics is a special discipline that researches scholarship using mathematical methods, data collecting, and statistical processing of bibliographic information (the number of published scientific papers, citations, etc.). In 1960, he organized the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI), which since 1963 has regularly published bibliographic indexes of scholarly citation (Science Citation Index). In Russia, the bibliographic information and the results of its mathematical processing obtained from all three databases (WoS, Scopus, RSCI) are actively used in planning scientific work and reports, distributing grants, and encouraging leading scientists and scientific departments of universities and institutes, with their ranking and financing depending on the achieved scientometric indicators. The scientometrics in elite Russian universities are not just a trivial calculation of numbers, their analysis, and interpretation, but a reason for making important managerial decisions with the appropriate reflection of the scientific community

Literature Review

Methods

Analysis of the Perception of Scientometric Indicators in Leading Russian

Differentiation

Findings

Discussion