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Boosting research productivity in top Russian universities: the circumstances of breakthrough

Author

Listed:
  • Andrey E. Guskov

    (Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences)

  • Denis V. Kosyakov

    (Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
    Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences)

  • Irina V. Selivanova

    (Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

The Russian project for enhancing competitive ability enforced top 21 universities to stimulate the research output actively. The results surpassed expectations with the fivefold increase in the number of publications from 2010 to 2016. This paper discusses the background and reasons for this phenomenal rise and explores in detail the most significant strategies to boost research productivity and publication output. In our study, a classification of university publications is proposed in accordance with the strategies for stimulating the publication activity, mainly corresponding with the set of measures applied by university management. The analysis made it possible to rank the strategies for contributing to the growth of publication activity, to identify the leading strategies for individual universities, and showed a significant difference between universities in the set of explicitly or implicitly applied strategies. The most effective strategy was the Additional paper, associated with the authors, indicated the affiliation of the university as complementary to their main institution. The next most important and fastest growing was the Russian conferences strategy thanks to the efforts of the organizers of domestic conferences to promote their proceedings in Scopus. A notable place is also occupied by the strategy connected with the attraction of prominent authors, which we called Headhunted author. It was possible to determine the role of the Predatory journals strategy in the growth of the publication activity, fortunately, this strategy turned out to be highly localized in only 2 of the 21 universities participating in the project and is visibly declining. It was possible to show that the share of publications in domestic journals, despite the constant increase in their presence in Scopus is steadily falling in the case of leading universities. One of the significant results of the study is an assessment of the dynamics of the average authors’ productivity, which grows insignificantly and almost reached one article per author per year. This fact also shows that the growth of publication activity of top Russian universities is mainly associated with an increase in the number of faculty involved.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrey E. Guskov & Denis V. Kosyakov & Irina V. Selivanova, 2018. "Boosting research productivity in top Russian universities: the circumstances of breakthrough," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(2), pages 1053-1080, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:117:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-018-2890-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-018-2890-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Denis Kosyakov & Andrey Guskov, 2024. "Disciplinary and institutional shifts: decomposing deviations in the country-level proportions of conference papers in Scopus," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(3), pages 1697-1717, March.
    3. Lin Zhang & Zhe Cao & Gunnar Sivertsen & Dmitry Kochetkov, 2024. "The influence of geopolitics on research activity and international collaboration in science: the case of Russia," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(10), pages 6007-6021, October.
    4. Andrey Lovakov & Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva, 2025. "Scientometric indicators in research evaluation and research misconduct: analysis of the Russian university excellence initiative," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(3), pages 1813-1829, March.
    5. Renata Kudaibergenova & Sandugash Uzakbay & Asselya Makanova & Kymbat Ramadinkyzy & Erlan Kistaubayev & Ruslan Dussekeev & Kadyrzhan Smagulov, 2022. "Managing publication change at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University: a case study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(1), pages 453-479, January.
    6. Duanhong Zhang & Wenjia Ding & Yang Wang & Siwen Liu, 2022. "Exploring the Role of International Research Collaboration in Building China’s World-Class Universities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-17, March.
    7. Nataliya Matveeva & Anuška Ferligoj, 2020. "Scientific collaboration in Russian universities before and after the excellence initiative Project 5-100," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(3), pages 2383-2407, September.
    8. Balatskiy, E. & Yurevich, M., 2021. "Russian economic science on the international market of "predatory" publications," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 50(2), pages 190-198.
    9. Andrey Lovakov & Elena Agadullina, 2019. "Bibliometric analysis of publications from post-Soviet countries in psychological journals in 1992–2017," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(2), pages 1157-1171, May.
    10. Denis Kosyakov & Andrey Guskov, 2022. "Reasons and consequences of changes in Russian research assessment policies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(8), pages 4609-4630, August.
    11. Nataliya Matveeva & Ivan Sterligov & Maria Yudkevich, 2019. "The Russian University Excellence Initiative: Is It Really Excellence That Is Promoted?," HSE Working papers WP BRP 49/EDU/2019, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    12. Leonid Gokhberg & Tatiana Kuznetsova & Maxim Kotsemir, 2023. "From the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation: publication activity dynamics along the evolution of national science policies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(11), pages 6195-6246, November.
    13. Aybars Oruc, 2021. "Requirements for Productivity in the Academic Environment," Higher Education Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(4), pages 1-40, November.
    14. Prakash Kumar Paudel & Basant Giri, 2024. "Carrying out research in Nepal: perceptions of scholars about research environment and challenges," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(5), pages 2499-2519, May.
    15. Koh Yamamoto & Takuo Yasunaga, 2022. "A percentile rank score of group productivity: an evaluation of publication productivity for researchers from various fields," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(4), pages 1737-1754, April.
    16. Vadim N. Gureyev & Nikolay A. Mazov & Denis V. Kosyakov & Andrey E. Guskov, 2020. "Review and analysis of publications on scientific mobility: assessment of influence, motivation, and trends," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(2), pages 1599-1630, August.
    17. Wu, Dengsheng & Wang, Shuwen & Xu, Weixuan & Li, Jianping, 2024. "Do conference-journal articles receive more citations? A case study in physics," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4).
    18. Shakeel Sarwar, Jawad Iqbal, 2020. "Framework Development of High Performance Work Systems (HPWSs) and Faculty Productivity: A Qualitative Approach," Journal of Management Sciences, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, March.

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