Russian government advises scientists against publishing in foreign academic journals

Russia’s Ministry of Education and Science has recommended that scientists should not submit articles to Dutch publisher Elsevier, which specialises in publishing scientific and medical research, or other “similar foreign organisations”, state-affiliated news outlet Izvestia reported on Tuesday.

Elsevier and several other scientific publications announced in March 2022 that while Russian and Belarusian researchers could continue to submit articles for publication, they would be suspending sales of their journals to Russian organisations due to the invasion of Ukraine.

One of Russia’s leading universities, the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, had already banned its staff from publishing in Elsevier research journals, with its vice rector for strategic communications Yelena Apasova claiming that Elsevier had “transferred fees paid by authors to publish articles to support Ukraine”.

In late January Novaya Gazeta Europe calculated that at least 2,500 Russian scientists had left the country since the start of the war in Ukraine, as many researchers felt it had become much more difficult to join international projects and get published in scientific journals.

Many also feared persecution by the Russian security services due to the recent string of high treason cases against Russian physicists in what has widely been described as Kremlin-sanctioned spy mania.