Individual Academic Productivity vs New Managerialism in Academic Research

Rudenko D.Y.

The aim of the study is to estimate the effect of the Russian academic excellence project (Project 5-100) on the publication activity of the University of Tyumen, measured by the number of articles published in journals indexed in the Web of Science database. The hypothesis of the research is that there is a positive causal relationship between the number of published articles and the University’s participation in Project 5-100. This impact was estimated empirically for the University of Tyumen while the other university participants (31 universities) were taken as a control group. Counterfactual scenarios are used to find the number of articles that the university employees would have published in the absence of Project 5-100. Thus, it is shown that, despite the failure to meet the goal of entering the top 200 of world universities in the ranking for ecology and agricultural biology, the University of Tyumen benefited from its participation in Project 5-100: its number of publications, especially in journals of the first and second quartile, has been growing faster than in the control group of universities.

Dezhina I.G.

This article analyzes the effects of «new managerialism» on the results of scientific research in universities. New managerialism implies decision-making based on quantitative indicators. This paper summarizes the international and Russian approaches to the assessment of scientific achievements at universities. It analyzes instruments for fostering scientific productivity, such as contracts with the faculty and the formation of centers of excellence, to identify the advantages and limitations of tools currently used at Russian research universities. Our analysis of international literature showed that evaluation of research results is becoming more complex as it is conducted regularly, not annually. The contract system indirectly affects the results of research but does not contain any strict quantitative requirements. Centers of excellence, which receive additional funding to accelerate the production of scientific knowledge, achieve this goal in most cases, but this system does not automatically create the Matthew effect. The article analyzes the specific characteristics of new managerialism in Russian universities by using the example of a program aimed at the creation of laboratories led by prominent scientists, the Project 5-100, and the system of contracts with the faculty. The study has revealed that these tools have contributed to the increase in publication activity. However, there are indications that this growth has reached its limits. Prospects of further development can reside in the use of a wider range of indicators to characterize the impact of scientific results on social and economic development and in increasing the share of long-term contracts.

Matveeva N.N.

The paper studies the dynamics of scientific collaborations in leading Russian universities during 2010–2018. The author analyzes both individual and inter-organizational collaboration. Understanding how scientific cooperation is organized, its disciplinary specifics and qualitative differences provides important information for organizing scientific activities in universities. Based on bibliometric data we analyze changes in the number of authors and affiliated organizations according to publications from various scientific fields and quality segments. The sampling of the universities shows the growth of scientific collaboration both among individual scientists and among organizations. The number of works co-authored with Russian organizations is higher than with foreign ones, but the share of such works is rapidly decreasing. In the segment of high quality publications, universities collaborate more often than in the lower quality segment. At the same time, in the high quality segment universities more often collaborate with foreign institutions, whereas in the lower quality segment – with Russian organizations. The highest share of scientific collaboration is observed in physical sciences, the lowest – in social sciences. The analysis is limited by the data, which do not represent all collaborations between scientists.

Margolis A., Ponomareva V., Sorokova M.

The article investigates the predictors of citation rate in the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) for Russian publications in psychology. Four groups of indicators are analyzed: formal attributes of a publication (12 indicators), parameters of publication visibility on eLibrary (3 indicators) and PsyJournals (2 indicators) that define accessibility of publication to potential readers, and author-based citation parameters (3). Special attention is paid to citation parameters as qualitative characteristics of the author’s method of elaborating the scientific text and construing dialogue (in the form of citations) with other researchers. Relationship between the indicators analyzed and the RSCI citation rate is proven statistically using the multivariate statistical methods of factor analysis and cluster analysis. For each of the four groups, the strongest predictors of citation rate are identified by multiple regression analysis, which are then compared by their predictive power. It is shown that visibility (accessibility) indicators are the best predictors of citation rate, followed by formal publication attributes and, finally, citation type parameters as having the lowest predictive power. The method of logistic regression allows to identify the ultimate predictors of citation rate and measure their accuracy in predicting whether a publication is low- or highly cited, which is 77.3% and 72.9% for the indicators of visibility on PsyJournals and eLibrary (respectively), 69.9% for formal attributes, and 60.9% for citation parameters. A publication that has few in-text citations is very likely to have a low RSCI citation rate, yet a high number of in-text citations does not guarantee a high citation impact. Recommendations are provided for authors to increase their citation rates. The sample is represented by 662 publications in six Russian psychology journals, each indexed in the RSCI, Web of Science, and Scopus.

Kirichenko I.V., Shelyubskaya N.V.

The paper is a case study of the experience of developing and using systems for evaluating the quality and effectiveness of scientific research within British, Dutch and Finnish universities and other fundamental scientific centers. The article aims at showing key organizational and methodical approaches for assessing the effectiveness of research in Western European countries against the background of the ensuing discussion about the role of quantitative and peer review methods in analyzing research results. Descriptive, historical and comparative methods are used. The assessments of quality and the state of research in the selected group of countries are found to be based mainly on the complexity and ambiguity of scientific pursuit and, consequently, on understanding that the evaluation of research effectiveness should be multidimensional and complex, that it should rest on expert quality assessment and quantitative (scientometric and bibliometric) indicators, the latter not to be dominant, but to serve as an advantage to expert judgment. The article gives new detailed and more complete (than the analogical works) analysis of the systems and criteria for assessing the quality of research together with the factors underlying their evolution in the three European countries with highly developed national scientific systems. There is shown the formation of modern evaluation systems in accordance with the needs for the development of scientific potential and with the need to strengthen its competitiveness on the international arena. This made it possible to draw valid conclusions about the essential general features of the assessment systems and about their adaptation to national characteristics, and to formulate recommendations on using the experience of Western European countries to improve the practice of evaluating research activities in Russian universities and research institutes. The results of the work may as well be of interest to researchers, university professors, postgraduates, students, and also to all those interested in topical issues of developing the science of science.

Surovitskaya G.V.

The article reviews the research on flagship universities’ personnel potential development mechanisms. The purpose of this review is to classify the forms, methods, and tools for the human resources development in flagship universities, as well as to assess the effectiveness of mechanisms for the human resources development with the help of 2016–2018 monitoring data of the universities effectiveness. According to the results of the study, the flagship universities’ development programs have been designed to present such forms of human resources development as developing effective contract systems, involving young scientific and pedagogical workers, improving continuous education systems, forming a personnel reserve, maintaining highly qualified personnel potential, and increasing the universities’ attractiveness as places of career development. These forms are implemented through methods and tools that are both invariant and specific. As for the end of 2017, there is no noticeable increase in the share of flagship universities’ teachers younger than 40, the arrays of values of this indicator being poorly correlated with the arrays of values of other important indicators. The authors’ study does not claim to be a complete description of the whole group of potential reference universities, as it covers the winners of 2015 and 2017 competitions. However, the research makes it possible to generate the basic directions of personnel potential development mechanisms efficiency increase in flagship universities. The problem of improving the mechanisms of flagship universities’ human resources development is solved by identifying best practices in forming mechanisms for the human resources development in flagship universities and by approaching to assessing their effectiveness in the context of different groups of these universities. This makes the article original and brand-new. The practical significance of the study lies in the methodological potential of the proposed classifications of forms, methods and tools for the development of flagship universities’ human resources, these classifications to be used in the practice of regional universities without special status. The article attempts at generalizing approaches to the human resources development of the universities in this country and at distinguishing on this basis certain ways to improve the effectiveness of HR-management mechanisms. It may be of interest to researchers of university governance mechanisms in the context of university development programs.

Kalgin A., Kalgina O., Lebedeva A.

The article presents an analytical review of literature on publication metrics as a tool of performance management in academia. Issues of quantitative re­search assessment are investigated in the light of modern views of motivation, in particular through the lens of self-determination theory. The article provi­des an insight into empirical studies on the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on publication productivity, research quality and subjective well­being. Accumulated international experience in performance management is used as a basis for developing recommendations on how to improve academic governance.

Antosik L., Shevchenko E.

The introduction of an effective contract into the Russian public sector was due to the need to ensure compliance regarding wages and the quality of services provided. A review of existing studies on contract relationships within academia and practices to stimulate publication activity in Russian and foreign universities has shown that the key factors influencing scientific activity by university teachers are internal motivation, favorable academic environment, and relationships in a team. This paper analyzes two systems of stimulation of publication activity in higher education: a rating of scientific activity and a system of the effective contract. To analyze the introduction of an effective contract in educational organizations, researchers primarily use methods of content analysis of normative legal acts and sociological surveys. Based on data about the publication activity of teachers of the Institute over 6 years (3 years before the introduction of an effective contract and 3 years after), the authors conducted an econometric study of the impact of an effective contract on the quantity and quality of publications. To test the hypothesis the authors used a fixed effect model, a random effects model, and pooled ordinary least squares and least squares dummy variable. In this article the authors suggest a methodology for assessing the impact of an effective contract on the publication activity of university teachers. The authors conclude that salary and incentive payments, as well as participation in conferences and teacher training, have had a significant positive impact on the number of publications. The quality of publications was significantly influenced by incentive payments and professional development. The introduction of an effective contract had an impact only on the total number of publications.

Litvinova L.I.

The article is a review of a research into academic productivity factors and approaches to its evaluation. The search for mechanisms of evaluating and managing academic staff productivity is an important challenge for research administrators and academic funds executives. Existing publications on academic productivity cover mainly two aspects: 1) methodology of productivity measurement and 2) factors negatively and positively influencing productivity of academic staff. This article presents main ideas of bibliometric approach to productivity measurement, different productivity indicators are classified and discussed. Factors influencing productivity are subdivided into three levels: individual (age, cooperation with colleagues, interdisciplinarity, internationalization, mobility and inbreeding, educational background and initial professional experience; marital status, gender); organizational (financing, organizational culture, bonus system, access to resources, prestige of an organization) and institutional (level of economic development of the country, political factors, religion). The article discusses an opportunity of considering different factors in administrative policy.

Chernova E., Akhobadze T., Malova A., Saltan A.

World Bank data shows that education accounts for, on average, 13% of government expenditure in the world, effective spending being a priority. Position in international academic rankings has been a universally accepted, yet criticized, criterion of institutional effectiveness. No consistent positive correlation was revealed during research on how the size of government subsidies affected university ranking. Assessment methodology is adjusted to study the influence of public funding mechanisms on university ranking. Three mechanisms are investigated: formula based funding, performance based funding, and negotiated funding. The sample includes 107 European universities from 27 countries. For each of them, information on the funding model (or a combination of models), total annual revenue, proportion of public subsidies, ranking and ranking movements over the last decade is collected. Analysis results are used to group universities into two major categories: low-ranking universities (ranked in the top 200–500), which are mostly funded using formal mechanisms (formula- and performance based funding), and high-rankings universities (the top 100), which largely use the negotiated funding model (either alone or combined with formal models). This confirms previous research findings that the size of government subsidies has no impact on university ranking. A qualitative analysis of higher education funding patterns in Russia is performed. Formalization of all sources of university funding has become a major trend, yet this empirical study demonstrates that prioritization of formal criteria may be ineffective if Russian universities want to reach their ambitious goals of making it to the top 100 in international rankings.

Popov E.V., Popova N.G., Biricheva E.V., Kochetkov D.M.

The current growth of scientific knowledge has intensified the problem of research performance assessment. However, there is still a lack of the unified assessment methodology, largely due to the changing nature of modern science. At present, knowledge is increasingly generated by collective actors - research teams, rather than by individual scientists. These collective actors constitute a complex self-developing and evolutionary system, making its evaluation rather problematic. By using a goal-oriented approach, this paper seeks to identify specific characteristics of various research team types and suggests a qualitative criterion against which their research performance can be measured. It is shown that a research team forms and evolves around a goal that is shared by all its members; this common goal defines both structural-managerial characteristics of such a collective actor and qualitative attributes of attained research objectives. The obtained results - research team models and the qualitative criterion of their performance - can be used as a platform for further research into the cross-cultural, ethical, and economic dimensions of research teams, as well as for assessing research performance of actual teams.

Drugova E.A., Andrakhanov А.А., Bolbasova L.А., Korichin D.A.

This article conceptually comprehends and describes new approaches to the resources of professional growth of a young scientist on the basis of analysis of scientific research trends in Russia and the world. In the paper, the problem of professional growth of young scientists is studied, related to the lack of professional guidelines and critical resources for its high-quality research work. In the article this problem is considered in three components: a) the scarcity of declared clear research policies in Russian universities as a standardized strategic element; b) underdevelopment of effective organizational forms of research, such as research networks; c) the lack of the qualitative analytics in the field of research activities. The paper describes the essence of the research policy in the international experience of university management and the prospects for its strengthening for Russian universities in general and young scientists in particular. Next, key characteristics of network and collaborative forms of research, their role in intensification of research activities and development of young scientists are considered. The article examines the role which international professional associations can play in forming research competencies of a young scientist and in building his or her academic career. In the final part of the work, modern tools and methods of analytics are considered for scientometric work and management of scientific activity, contributing to the effective professional growth of young scientists and the intensification of the research activities of scientific groups. The work is based on the study and analysis of theoretical material, as well as the results of the work of the «research policy group» within the cycle of strategic sessions of the NR TSU (2015-2016) under the direction of the Moscow School of Management «Skolkovo».

Panikarova S.V., Vlasov M.V., Kusnetsov P.D.

Ivanov V.V., Markusova V.A., Mindeli L.E.

Analyzing the results of bibliometric analysis of more than 175 000 domestic articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection over 2010–2014, the authors identified an increase both in the number of articles prepared at the Russian Academy of Sciences and in the number of articles associated with the higher education sector. It is shown that the growth of the scientific productivity of higher educational institutions, especially 15 universities within the Project 5-100, is largely due to their strengthened scientific collaboration with the Russian Academy of Sciences. This article reflects general trends in the development of the global and domestic practice of assessing scientific activity and science-based decisions made to finance various scientists and research teams. The authors fully share the opinion and principles of the founders of the Leiden Manifesto and call on science administrators to use bibliometric indicators as tools of information support for expert procedures.

Balatsky E.V., Yurevich M.A.

Kaur H., Kaur R.

Purpose This present three-wave longitudinal study aims to elucidate underlying mechanism in high-performance work practices (HPWPs) and job performance relationship by examining the role of person–job as a potential mediator. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 357 faculty members of universities in Punjab (India) using a well-structured questionnaire for four consecutive months. Hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM software. Findings This study results substantiated HPWPs have a direct favorable impact on the person–job fit because their extensive engagement policies, such as employee empowerment and rewards, help employees to perceive their jobs as being a good fit. Furthermore, these practices fulfil employment expectations for employees, resulting in job fit and boosting the employee’s performance; highlighting person–job fit as potential mediator. Research limitations/implications Grounding on the person–environment congruence theory, this study shed light on the relationship between HPWPs and job performance via person–job fit in the Indian higher education sector. This develops a unique management philosophy and strategies for long-term sustainable growth of organizations to give proper concrete evidence for the significance of human resource management (HRM). Practical implications This study findings persuade HR professionals in higher education institutions to actively engage in reconsidering and implementing their current HPWPs efficaciously to ensure that the employees are well-suited to their roles, i.e. increased person–job fit and perform at a higher level. Furthermore, considering the favorable impact of HPWPs on job fit and performance, it is pertinent to extensively use these practices in organizations all over the world especially across developing nations as a successful HRM solution. Originality/value This longitudinal study provides first-hand information on person–job fit intervening as a mediator in HPWPs and job performance relationship thereby contributing to the current corpus of HPWPs work. This fills the gap in HPWPs and job performance literature by identifying a novel concept of person–job fit that is mostly unexplored in developing countries like India.

Zborovsky G., Ambarova P.

The subject of sociological analysis in the article is one of the important resources of modern higher education – the scientific and pedagogical community (SPS), considered by the authors as a key social community of universities (along with students and managers). The focus of attention is on two main incarnations of the SPS, that determine the place of the university in domestic and international rankings of higher education institutions. This is a professional-pedagogical and scientificeducational activity of the members of the community. It is emphasised that it is the SPS that today constitutes the “core” of the university’s intellectual asset. That leads to the growing attention to the SPS as an object of theoretical and empirical study in foreign and domestic science. Hence, the purpose of the article was defined as the identification of trends in the SPS research, shown through the prism of its contradictions and problems common to Russian and foreign universities. Special attention is drawn to two paradoxical situations typical of the domestic SPS. Firstly, as its number decreases, the structure of professional activity becomes more complicated, the number of tasks and the degree of responsibility increase, the amount of academic workload and unnecessary bureaucratic burden systematically increase. Secondly, the growing dependence of the university development strategy on scientific and pedagogical staff is combined in a contradictory way with a decrease in real managerial attention to them. Two theories served as a general theoretical framework for the authors – theory of social community and theory of resource dependence. The article presents the results of a systematic analysis of the literature, that allowed to reveal the contradictions in the reproduction of the scientific and pedagogical staff of universities, the impact of the development strategies of higher education and universities on the functioning and development of the SPS, as well as the contradictions in the development of the resource capacity of the SPS.

Danilaev D.P., Malivanov N.N.

The university teachers’ tasks are being updated, their labor functions are being revised and supplemente, with changes at the higher education system. The good organization of a modern university teacher is subject to numerous external targets. The perception of these targets, as well as the personal value of the activity components, are important. The purpose of the article are the identification of tasks for a technical university teacher from the standpoint of the Higher School strategic targets, and determination of their solution limitations. The paper reveals the strategic tasks hierarchy of higher technical education – for technical universities, departments and their teachers; the academic community attitude review to strategic objectives is carried out (including: how the strategic objectives are understood by teachers, how priorities and emphasis are placed in these tasks); the priorities of technical universities teachers are evaluated in terms of their tasks solving; restrictions are indicated in solving these problems, and these restrictions connection with the working conditions of the technical universities teaching staff. The paper points out the balancing problem of the teachers work, and the emerging dissonance among the goals, tasks set for them, and private indicators of their activities effectiveness. The engineering education strategic goals and objectives should proceed from the fact, that this is a mutually responsible process of the qualified technical specialists training, from the authors’ point of view. This is especially topical for the returning process to the engineers training.