Visibility of Russian university journals in the systems of national and international scientific and technical information

Abstract

Current limitations of access to some international journal platforms and bibliographic systems for Russian researchers result in increased role of national journals for communication and knowledge spreading both at domestic and international levels. Consequently, correct information on Russian journals indexation in various bibliographic systems including underestimated open access databases seems to be topical. The analyzed sample includes journals published by Russian universities as the less studied ones compared to serials published by research institutes. We studied journals published by three types of Russian universities, i.e. Federal, National Research and Basic. Rapid increase in the number of new journals in recent years is demonstrated caused by financial support under different programs. Indexing of journals in Web of Science, Scopus, Dimensions and Lens was studied over a period of 2018–2022. In the Dimensions and Lens we also studied the completeness of indexing as these databases index content using other approaches as compared to Web of Science and Scopus. A share of journals indexed by authoritative Russian journal lists Russian Science Citation Index and White List was revealed. The best positions were detected among journals published by National Research universities. However, Basic universities demonstrate positive growth, as well. The obtained results enabled us to conclude that journals published by Russian universities can be regarded as significant strategic information resource for representing Russian research results to international community.