Mysterious growth

The mind cannot understand Russia,
Arshin is general not to measure:
She has special to become -
You can only believe in Russia.

F. I. Tyutchev

It seems that we have the next riddle: in 2013, a sharp increase in the number of publications in magazines included in the WOS database began. Moreover, this is independent growth, it is perfectly visible for all publications and publications without foreign co -authors (Fig. 1). Naturally, the first question is, but is this growth connected with the publications of articles exclusively in the least prestigious magazines of the trash level, which are also enough among the WOS database?

Even if you do not take on a full analysis, a cursory look at this problem shows that, most likely, there is no growth - growth is not at the expense of garbage magazines (or not only at their expense). Analysis of top magazines in the Earth Sciences - Geologi and Earth and Planetary Science Letters - shows that the number of Russian publications in these magazines remains at the same level, ranging an average of about 2% of the total number of publications in these journals.

In the top -end physical journal Physical Review Letters, the share of Russian publications also remains the same, amounting to about 6.5%, following the reduction in the total number of publications in this journal. But in the thematic magazines Physical Review , with the exception of Physical Review letters , there is a systematic growth of publications of Russian scientists, and in the last six years the share of articles in the total volume of publications has also been growing (Fig. 2).

There is growth in some of the most prestigious magazines. In particular, in Science , Nature , and Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences , in 2013, there was a jump in the publication of Russian authors by almost 40%, and the share of publications reached ~ 0.8% of the total number of publications in these top magazines (Fig. 3).

Since 2011, WOS has been tracking sources of financing in publications, which allows you to see what articles have been published, for example, in Science , Nature and Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Table 1). The Russian fund of fundamental research (RFFI) is the leader, but with the advent of the Russian Scientific Fund (RNF), the latter clearly intercepts leadership.

Behind them, with a noticeable lag, the Ministry of Education and Science programs go - these are megagrators, and various supports of universities, and then various RAS programs. Perhaps the most amazing thing is that Dmitry Zimin’s small private fund “Dynasty” was in the middle of the list, overtaking both Skolkovo and presidential grants. This is another reminder that the introduction of the “dynasty” in the list of foreign agents that led to the closure of the Fund is only a crime before Russian science. Another clear conclusion that follows from the analysis of this table: support for small groups gives a lot of vivid publications, unlike Megasayens, where, by definition, there will always be fewer publications per ruble.

It is also interesting that the share of articles in these three magazines indicating the Russian source of financing only in recent years has exceeded half of the total number of published articles with Russian authors (Fig. 4). This, apparently, suggests that only in recent years the real contribution of Russian financing appeared in these articles, while earlier studies, the results of which were published in the most prestigious publications were mainly carried out due to sources of foreign co-authors.

In general, it is clear that Russian scientists began to be noticeably more published, including in prestigious scientific publications. What served as this impetus? At the turn of 2010-2013, many events occurred. In 2010, the megagrators program with the involvement of (mainly) foreign scientists for big money ( www.p220.ru ) were launched. In 2011-the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology was created ( www.skoltech.ru ). In 2012, the project “5-100” was launched to finance 21 universities to enter five of them in the first hundred according to international ratings ( http://5top100.ru ). In 2013, the creation of the Russian Scientific Fund ( http: //rnf.rf ) was announced. Despite the fact that sometimes financing through these programs resembled the transfer of water in the lattice, probably the whole range of measures, in the conditions of the initially low base, eventually gave a cumulative effect, which led to a noticeable growth of publications.

Alexey Ivanov,
doct. Geol.-Min. Sciences, Institute of Earth's Czech County SB RAS, Irkutsk