Page-by-page control: RAS to take over subscriptions to scientific journals
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) plans to take over the provision of centralized subscriptions to scientific journals — the relevant amendments were approved on Monday, March 17, by the Cabinet of Ministers. To do this, a number of scientific publishing houses should be included in the structure of the academy. This measure will make it possible to popularize domestic publications, profit from indexing by distributing them, as well as filter out and reduce the impact of publications that do not carry scientific value, for example, articles by information Gypsies who speculate on them on social networks. The changes will have an impact on the promotion of Russian scientific journals in the Izvestia article.
Who will develop scientific journals
Organizations that provide subscriptions to scientific publications and databases can join the structure of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Such amendments were approved on Monday, March 17, by the government commission on legislative activity (the document is available to Izvestia), sources of the editorial office in the Cabinet of Ministers reported.
The RAS building in Moscow
The bill is aimed at developing editorial and publishing activities and popularizing the research results of Russian scientists, Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Bar Association, told Izvestia.
"It is being established that organizations whose main activities include providing centralized subscriptions to scientific publications and databases can be included in the structure of the Russian Academy of Sciences," he said. — As well as editorial, publishing and printing activities. Organizations will be included in the list based on the decision of the head of state, the list itself must be approved by the government.
The academy will be entrusted with the powers of the founder and owner of the property, which is under the operational management of such organizations. The first to enter there will be the Russian Center for Scientific Information (RCNI) and the Nauka Publishing House.
The decision to transfer "Science" to the structure of the Russian Academy of Sciences was made by the President of Russia, Nikolai Fedoseyenkov, the scientific director of this publishing house, reminded Izvestia.
— As a result, all this should return to what it was before: for 280 years, the publishing house was part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. And, apparently, the goal is to restore this order in the year of the 300th anniversary of the academy," he noted. — The relevant procedures are underway now. They include amendments to the laws related to the Russian Academy of Sciences, the composition of the founders, and other steps. It will take time. Probably for the whole of next year.
According to him, the publishing house is currently cooperating with the Russian Academy of Sciences in a large number of areas. Thus, Nauka is the only contractor for the publication of scientific journals and books of the Academy.
— That is, daily joint work with the academy is underway, but the formal side needs a lot of legal work, — he stressed.
The RAS press service indicated that the amendments would make it possible to more actively integrate the RCNI and Nauka into the work of the academy and more effectively build interaction with them.
Scientific databases
In total, there are more than 32 thousand scientific journal titles in Russia, such statistics were provided by Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Scientific director of the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University, Academician Stepan Kalmykov at the IV Congress of Young Scientists in Sirius in November 2024. Of these, 172 journals belong to the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 144 of them, the academy is a founder, and in the remaining 28 it is a co—founder together with other scientific organizations.
But they need to return indexing in international databases, Nikolai Fedoseyenkov added. To do this, according to the draft law, the Russian Academy of Sciences will begin to control the volume of subscriptions to scientific journals.
"We are working to improve the quality of the magazines and create their versions in English and other foreign languages," he said. — This is important in order to attract the attention of colleagues around the world to the publications of Russian scientists. They weren't indexed before, so they dropped out of these systems. At the same time, it is necessary to translate magazines into English.
In addition, it is necessary to work systematically with international databases: regularly provide information about journals, for example, that they continue to be published, there is a website, new materials are published, the composition of the editorial board is indicated, and so on.
— This is a formal procedure, but it is important for indexing journals, including in foreign databases. It makes no sense to publish an English—language magazine that no one sees," the expert explained. — It is necessary for everyone to see it, because Russian science is a part of the world.
In 2022, the international databases Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus stopped indexing domestic scientific journals. In response, in March of the same year, the government imposed a moratorium on recording the publication activity of Russian scientists in journals from these two databases. At the same time, the interdepartmental group of the Ministry of Education and Science, which included representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, published its own list of scientific journals — the "White List". The list includes both foreign scientific publications indexed by WoS and Scopus, as well as Russian journals from the Russian Science Citation Index.
Two years later, in November 2024, a government decree established that the "White List" replaced some functions of WoS and Scopus. When issuing presidential grants for the period of study, publications from the Russian list are taken into account, not in journals from international databases.
What are the changes for?
Another important task is to make scientific journals self—supporting, Nikolai Fedoseyenkov added. Now many of them depend on government subsidies, but it is necessary that they earn themselves and can develop with this money.
"This requires a large package of magazines that will be of interest on the global market," he said. — One magazine or even a hundred is not enough. When you have 300 or 500 magazines, you are already being talked to on a different level, and such a package is more expensive.
A scientist from a major institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, on condition of anonymity, noted that it is easier to publish in Russian journals, since it is a good platform for graduate students.
— On the other hand, we want their level to grow — for this we need to send high—quality publications there, - said the interlocutor of the editorial board. — But our system is designed so that it is better to send them abroad. Since the benefits of publishing in highly rated foreign publications are higher — our reward system is designed that way, the Russian Science Foundation pays attention to this.
However, it is important to understand the real purpose of transferring journals to the Russian Academy of Sciences, added Kirill Masliev, Candidate of Medical Sciences, member of the Commission on Active Long-term life of the State Council.
"If this is the promotion of Russian journals to popularize the Russian scientific community and increase the competitiveness of Russian scientific media, then there should be an appropriate quality base of reviewers for this," the expert said. — And as you know, scientists act as reviewers solely on enthusiasm, this is unpaid work.
Therefore, scientific journals may include publications that are not valuable, or even sometimes unscientific. This topic is especially painful in connection with the popularization of the ideas of the so-called "information gypsies", who publish relevant articles under their theories and link to them on social networks.
According to him, the transformation of the Russian Academy of Sciences into a media organ in the scientific space can both elevate individual publications and reduce the influence of others.
How regional centers are created
The bill also excludes provisions concerning the establishment of regional scientific centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Gruzdev noted.
"This exception is due to the fact that there is no unified position on the tasks and functions of the regional scientific centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences," the expert explained. — All the functions previously proposed for the regional centers being created are already being implemented by the Academy itself, its branches or organizations subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Science. Therefore, the creation of regional scientific centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences is impractical," added the Chairman of the Board of the AYUR.
The proposed changes are intended to update regulatory documents in accordance with the practice of their application, the press service of the Russian Academy of Sciences told Izvestia.
"The Academy of Sciences is increasingly involved in shaping the scientific landscape, and the Ural, Siberian, Far Eastern and St. Petersburg branches of the Russian Academy of Sciences play a special role here," they stressed. — Their activities are aimed not only at solving major scientific problems, but also at assisting the subjects of the Russian Federation in economic and social development, in solving issues in the field of natural resources, ecology, and climate.
The Russian Academy of Sciences and its regional branches regularly hold meetings with local government authorities and are in constant dialogue with scientific organizations in the regions. They are subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Science and carry out their activities under the scientific and methodological guidance of the Academy, the press service noted.
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