Prokofieva, Yu D

Prokofieva Y.D.

The aim of the article is to analyze functional possibilities of accessible information sources to solve bibliometric tasks of researchers and scientific organizations based on criteria of “Methodology for accessing the development of interdisciplinary research and the activities of research organizations”, used in the Central Scientific Library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS). The article considers scientific information search systems as alternative sources of scientometric data in the absence of access to the Web of Science and Scopus. The analysis of the systems is carried out in accordance with the criteria of the above mentioned “Methodology”. The functional capabilities of the systems, available bibliometric indicators, analytical tools and information visualization capabilities for evaluating the activities of research organizations and researchers have been studied. For information systems with the function of a scientific profile, a comparative analysis of quantitative characteristics is carried out on the example of a specific scientific organization and the author (IMASH Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Maidanik Yu. F.). Conclusions were drawn about the prospects for using the analyzed resources, in particular the CoLab system to assess the publication activity of scientific organizations of the UB RAS.

Prokofieva Y.D., Peksheva M.A.

Due to the limited access to the Web of Science and Scopus, scientific libraries are forced to look for alternative sources of bibliometric information. There has appeared the need to revise the methods and tools for conducting scientometric research and assessing scientific activity in general. Specialists’ attention to the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) has especially increased, which now most fully reflects the Russian document flow on scientific publications and has the analytical capabilities necessary to work with bibliometric indicators. In the Central Scientific Library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS), the methodology for scientometric analysis of the publication activity of scientific organizations of UB RAS has been reoriented to RSCI. The purpose of the study is to analyze the publication activity of a UB RAS scientific organization and test the RSCI tools for solving scientometric problems according to the developed methodology. The study revealed the need to revise the analysis criteria and methods of obtaining data according to the RSCI architecture. Conclusions are drawn on the effectiveness of RSCI tools for the purposes of the methodology, the correctness of the data obtained, and actions are proposed to improve the functionality of the system.

Prokof’eva Y.D.

In the modern world, the Internet representation of an organization has long ceased to be a fashionable trend, but has become a significant form of communication dictated by the requirements of time. The effectively organized work of the Internet representation helps to inform about the results of activities and achievements, to form image, to establish communication and feedback, affordable, prompt service and liaison. In the conditions of information competition, it is especially important for scientific organizations to be present in the Internet space. Conventionally, Websites are considered as the Internet main representation. A relatively new type of the Internet representation are pages in social networks, including those of scientific libraries and research institutes. Despite the common tasks and related functions, they have a number of differences and advantages over each other. It is proposed in the study to consider profiles of scientific organizations and author profiles on scientific platforms (Web of Science, Scopus, ORCID, RSCI, ScienceID, ResearchGate, Google Scholar and others) as a specialized type of the Internet representations. Unlike websites and social networks, they are aimed only at specialists in the scientific field. The purpose of the work is to determine whether the profile of the organization and the author’s profile of the scientist is a kind of the Internet representation. The article considers approaches to understanding the Internet representation, types, tasks and criteria characteristic of all types of the Internet representations, the definition of the “Internet representation” has been formulated. Scientific profiles have been analyzed from the viewpoint of their compliance with the tasks and criteria of the Internet representative offices. The role of the scientific library in the formation of the Internet representations of scientific organizations has been determined. 

Prokof’eva Y.D.

Scientometrics today is an effective tool to analyze and evaluate the activities of scientific organizations, as well as to form strategies and forecasts for the development of scientific research. To carry out scientometric research, specialists are required with the knowledge and skills to work with scientometric data. Such specialists can be employees of research libraries. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of the research library in carrying out scientometric works in the interests of research organizations. The article describes the experience of bibliometric analysis and the development of scientometrics in the Central Scientific Library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS). The study of the state of scientometrics in research organizations of UD RAS was carried out by the method of questionnaires. As a result, it is revealed that most often work in scientometric databases is carried out by scientific secretaries and deputy directors for scientific work. In some answers one can see a limited use of scientometric databases capabilities. Thus, the need for a specialist in scientometrics has been identified. Despite the indicated advantages of library specialists, the importance of interaction between a research organization and a library is emphasized for conducting a high-quality scientometric analysis.

Prokof’eva Y.D., Peksheva M.A.

Compliance of studies with the priority directions of scientific development in the country is an important factor in realizing the research potential of scholars. The article analyzes the directions of scientific research held in the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS) organizations and their interdisciplinary interactions in the context of RF priority areas of science and technology development. The research bases on the content analysis of strategic documents at the national and federal levels, programs for the development of the scientific sphere (Forecast of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030) and the analysis of scientific activities of the institutes of the Ural Branch based on scientometric data (Scopus).It is revealed that the leading research directions of Ural scientists enter scientific fields, which, due to the Forecast, are promising for science and technology development. These areas include “Materials Science”, “Biochemistry and Molecular Biology”, “Medicine”, “Immunology and Microbiology”, “Pharmacology, Toxicology, Pharmacy”, “Energy”.Fundamental scientific fields, not dir ectly reflected in the key areas of science and technology development, contribute to their development through the established interdisciplinary ties. They include “Physics and Astronomy”, “Chemistry”, “Engineering”, “Mathematics” and others. Researches on interdisciplinary problems have greater potential for international cooperation.

Prokof ’eva Y.D.

Today research libraries pay special attention to research information support. Publication activity is one of the most important indicators of the effectiveness of a scientific organization and reflects the level of science development in the state and separate regions. The article presents the statistics of publications of Russian authors according to Web of Science and Scopus. The contribution of Ural scientists to the all-Russian volume of publications on key indicators was analyzed. It shows the common development vector and a noticeable input of the Ural physicists, astronomers, chemists, mathematicians, specialists in engineering and material science in the Science in Russia. In order to achieve better results, the author proposes the creation of a publication activity support service. The review of existing Russian and foreign services is presented, as a result of which the list of actual types of services, the request form and the content of the future service is formed and described.

Prokof’Eva Y.D.

Scientometric studies have become an integral part of scientific libraries activities with introducing the state rating system in Russian science. Scientometric studies contribute to study long-term trends in the science development, help to discover interdisciplinary links between publications of scientists from various scientific organizations and different countries, and are a tool to determine the return and payback of public finances investments in science and research projects. Evaluation of scientists’ productivity, contribution of them and scientific organizations to the development of specific field of science or interdisciplinary research is one of the most important theoretical and applied problems in the science of science. Nowadays there is no clear methodology to assess the results of scientific activities in Russia, and all conclusions are based primarily on digital scientometric indicators, such as the number of the author’s publications and references to his work. The study objective is to determine which of the existing criteria, in combination with generally accepted indicators, can serve as a basis to form an idea about the level of contribution of organizations and authors to the interdisciplinary research development. The study has determined the boundaries of monitoring: 1. The level of organizations - scientific institutions of the Ural Federal District. 2. Time coverage: 2000-2018. 3. Subjects of the organizations under study: mathematics, mechanics and computer science; economic sciences; physical and technical sciences; chemical sciences; biological sciences; medical sciences; earth sciences; humanities; agricultural sciences; interdisciplinary problems. Research platforms are Web of Science and Scopus. In accordance with the systems approach principles, the author selects the following evaluation parameters: institute publications amount; documents types; years of publications for the whole period; leading authors; leading research directions; areas with low publications amount; co-sponsoring countries. Selected parameters tend to develop, grow and change, contribute to the information accumulation, further comparative analysis, reflect many scenarios when comparing the criteria. The author reveals a number of problems arising during the information collecting and analyzing: lack of organization profiles; incorrect affiliation; lack of a generally accepted form of words abbreviation in organization names; submitting the information on publications in the account of several organizations; a trouble of accounting the co-authors contribution to the scientific activity results.

Prokof’eva Y.D., Treskova V.V.

Prokofyeva Y.D., Obolenskaya L.A., Osipenko T.A., Pavlova A.S.

Gerasimenko A.Y.

One of the key areas of the state policy in the field of scientific and technological development of the country is to create an infrastructure and conditions for conducting research and implementing high-tech technologies. Special attention is given to the development of the scientific and information sphere. The research aims to study the implemented approaches to developing the scientific and information sphere and creation of concept and structure for the navigator on digital scientific and information space of the Ural region. The article analyzes the development of the scientific information sphere in the context of digital transformation. Based on the results obtained, the concept for forming the structure of the digital scientific and information space of the Ural region is developed. The most suitable format for the reference system – a navigator – was chosen as the basis. The analysis and evaluation of existing solutions in the field of formation of navigation systems on digital space of scientific knowledge are carried out. Based on the results obtained and formulated in the task concept, a structure of the navigator for scientific infosphere of the Ural region is developed. The developed navigator will provide aggregation, registration, systematization and accessibility of information about scientific institutions of the Ural region and their information resources in digital space. This will contribute to the dissemination and popularization of research and development results conducted by scientists and research teams in the region. 

Gushul Y.V.

The article presents bibliographic resources created by the author at the Chelyabinsk State Institute of Culture and Arts, recording scientific schools of Chelyabinsk: a catalog of a scientific school, a bibliographic navigator, a bibliographic index. Some unique methodological solutions for the structure, visualization of the text, approaches to annotation and abstracting are described and presented for discussion. The role of bibliographic resources in the presentation and assessment of the functioning of a scientific school is shown, as arguments for its formation and development, absence or only the initial stage of formation. The proposed innovations in recording and positioning scientific schools can be used by the bibliographic community — today, a variety of scientific collaborations and institutions are increasingly being created, and it is important to identify the mechanisms of their emergence and functioning to determine the best tools for organizing science and managing it.

Glushanovsky A.V.

The author examines the place of scientometrics in the general analysis of Russian flow of scientific publications (and changes in the attitude toward this issue in Russia in the recent years). He focuses, in particular, on the information and software tools for scientometric research (scientometric databases – OBD). The problems preventing today from using Web of Science and Scopus DBs are noted. The author argues that the RSCI database (Russian Science Citation Index) is currently the most appropriate choice. The existing RSCI OBD functionality, its advantages and disadvantages, and experience are discussed. The author concludes on the possibility and expediency of the wider use of the RSCI OBD in Russian scientometrics (within the current situation), however, he argues that some further developments are urgently needed, in particular, in the aspect of specialized scientometrics-oriented tools. The RAS BEN experience in design and application of such tools is highlighted.

Prokofieva Y.D.

The aim of the article is to analyze functional possibilities of accessible information sources to solve bibliometric tasks of researchers and scientific organizations based on criteria of “Methodology for accessing the development of interdisciplinary research and the activities of research organizations”, used in the Central Scientific Library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS). The article considers scientific information search systems as alternative sources of scientometric data in the absence of access to the Web of Science and Scopus. The analysis of the systems is carried out in accordance with the criteria of the above mentioned “Methodology”. The functional capabilities of the systems, available bibliometric indicators, analytical tools and information visualization capabilities for evaluating the activities of research organizations and researchers have been studied. For information systems with the function of a scientific profile, a comparative analysis of quantitative characteristics is carried out on the example of a specific scientific organization and the author (IMASH Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Maidanik Yu. F.). Conclusions were drawn about the prospects for using the analyzed resources, in particular the CoLab system to assess the publication activity of scientific organizations of the UB RAS.

Litvinenko T.V.

The relevance of the study is related to the need to assess the level of development of scientific knowledge and the degree of development of individual scientific problems in the field of agricultural economics. The purpose of this work is to study the dynamics of the number of publications in the field of agricultural economics in Russia and highlight their main topics. The main research method is content analysis within the bibliometric research. The results indicate great attention of scientists to various aspects of agricultural economics. However, from 2019 to 2023, the number of publications devoted to agricultural economics decreases. During the period under review, researchers pay the greatest attention to the following topics: “Accounting and analysis of economic activities”, “Financing and lending. Investments”. As the content analysis has shown, a significant number of publications are devoted to the problems of ensuring food security and sustainable development; innovative technologies, including digital ones; development of rural areas; issues related to government support and government regulation, productivity, competitiveness, small business, organic agriculture, investment, efficiency and agricultural management. At the same time, there is a relatively small number of publications devoted to pricing and labor resources, despite the relevance of these topics. In some years, there is a sharp increase in the number of publications on some topics. Thus, in 2019, the attention of researchers was as attracted by the topic of accounts payable and receivable, in 2020–2022 – programs for the development and support of agriculture, in 2020 and in 2023 – automation, in 2022 – import substitution. In 2021, there began to appear publications on the pandemic and unmanned technologies, and in 2023 – on artificial intelligence. Based on the calculation of the TF-IDF measure, it is concluded that there is greater similarity between the topics of publications in adjacent years than in non-adjacent ones. The results obtained can be used to plan the topics of research work.

Gureyev V.N., Ilicheva I.Y., Mazov N.A.

The paper demonstrates the features of author and organizational publication profiles in Dimensions and Lens information systems. In recent years, these systems have been successfully competing with many subscription-based systems. The authors discuss the advantages of these databases in terms of coverage of research content in publication profiles as compared to that of commercial bibliographic platforms, as well as the wide range of functional capabilities. As illustrated by publication profiles of two research organizations and their authors, we describe original approaches to searching bibliographic information, as well as editing bibliographic errors in databases. These features enable (a) to monitor effectively the scholarly output of research organizations and authors, and (b) to enhance visibility of research findings in the international information space. Solving information-retrieval problems and editing publication profiles of Russian organizations and authors in Dimensions and Lens prove to be similar to that of commercial systems, i. e. Web of Science and Scopus. The vast experience of working with proprietary databases and subscription-based systems, would enable Russian academic libraries to adapt to new interfaces in a short time frame.

Prokofieva Y.D., Peksheva M.A.

Due to the limited access to the Web of Science and Scopus, scientific libraries are forced to look for alternative sources of bibliometric information. There has appeared the need to revise the methods and tools for conducting scientometric research and assessing scientific activity in general. Specialists’ attention to the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) has especially increased, which now most fully reflects the Russian document flow on scientific publications and has the analytical capabilities necessary to work with bibliometric indicators. In the Central Scientific Library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS), the methodology for scientometric analysis of the publication activity of scientific organizations of UB RAS has been reoriented to RSCI. The purpose of the study is to analyze the publication activity of a UB RAS scientific organization and test the RSCI tools for solving scientometric problems according to the developed methodology. The study revealed the need to revise the analysis criteria and methods of obtaining data according to the RSCI architecture. Conclusions are drawn on the effectiveness of RSCI tools for the purposes of the methodology, the correctness of the data obtained, and actions are proposed to improve the functionality of the system.

Prokof’eva Y.D.

Scientometrics today is an effective tool to analyze and evaluate the activities of scientific organizations, as well as to form strategies and forecasts for the development of scientific research. To carry out scientometric research, specialists are required with the knowledge and skills to work with scientometric data. Such specialists can be employees of research libraries. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of the research library in carrying out scientometric works in the interests of research organizations. The article describes the experience of bibliometric analysis and the development of scientometrics in the Central Scientific Library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS). The study of the state of scientometrics in research organizations of UD RAS was carried out by the method of questionnaires. As a result, it is revealed that most often work in scientometric databases is carried out by scientific secretaries and deputy directors for scientific work. In some answers one can see a limited use of scientometric databases capabilities. Thus, the need for a specialist in scientometrics has been identified. Despite the indicated advantages of library specialists, the importance of interaction between a research organization and a library is emphasized for conducting a high-quality scientometric analysis.

Prokof ’eva Y.D.

Today research libraries pay special attention to research information support. Publication activity is one of the most important indicators of the effectiveness of a scientific organization and reflects the level of science development in the state and separate regions. The article presents the statistics of publications of Russian authors according to Web of Science and Scopus. The contribution of Ural scientists to the all-Russian volume of publications on key indicators was analyzed. It shows the common development vector and a noticeable input of the Ural physicists, astronomers, chemists, mathematicians, specialists in engineering and material science in the Science in Russia. In order to achieve better results, the author proposes the creation of a publication activity support service. The review of existing Russian and foreign services is presented, as a result of which the list of actual types of services, the request form and the content of the future service is formed and described.

Grinev А.V.

The purpose of the study is a critical analysis of the Russian practice of using the main indicators of sci entometrics in management activities at various levels. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to solve several problems, namely: to study the main scientometric parameters; determine the degree of accuracy and reliability of information indexed by the major bibliographic databases; to formulate a number of principles of management practice related to scientometrics; to identify and consider the shortcomings of management decisions recorded in regulatory documents; to develop recommendations aimed at resolving a number of problems related to the use of scientometric indicators. The research is based on both general scientific theoretical methods: induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, systems approach, social modeling, comparative typological and comparative analytical methods, and practical methods: working with documents, analysis of printed and electronic sources of information, content analysis and bibliographic combination of documents. In the course of the work, it was revealed that scientometrics in its applied version still clearly lacks reliability both due to imperfections associated with both its main indicators in all databases and with the indexing of publications in them, as well as due to management miscalculations reflected in regulations. In particular, in the light of the current political events caused by the special military operation in Ukraine, and in connection with difficult access to Western bibliographic data bases, the problem of a radical reorganization of the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) and the transition to a new system of scientometric indicators clearly arises. The data and recommendations obtained as a result of the study will help management structures avoid obvious omissions and errors in planning and monitoring the scientific activities of university and academic research institute staff, as well as optimize scientometric reporting.

Chinchilla-Rodríguez Z., Costas R., Robinson-García N., Larivière V.

Abstract Authorship is associated with scientific capital and prestige, and corresponding authorship is used in evaluation as a proxy for scientific status. However, there are no empirical analyses on the validity of the corresponding authorship metadata in bibliometric databases. This paper aims at looking at differences on the corresponding authorship metadata in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus, to investigate how the relationship between author position and corresponding authors varies by discipline and country and analyzing changes in the position of corresponding authors over time. We find that both, WoS and Scopus, have accuracy issues when it comes to assigning corresponding authorship. Although the number of documents with a reprint author has increased over time in both databases, however, WoS indexed more of those papers than Scopus, and there are significant differences between the two databases in terms of who the corresponding author is. Although metadata is not complete in WoS, corresponding authors are normally first authors with a declining trend over time, favoring middle and last authors, especially in Medical, Natural & Engineering fields. These results reinforce the importance of considering how databases operationalize and index concepts like corresponding authors, being this particularly important when are used in research assessment. Peer Review https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway/wos/peer-review/10.1162/qss_a_00285

Gureyev V.N., Ilicheva I.Y., Mazov N.A.

The paper demonstrates the features of author and organizational publication profiles in Dimensions and Lens information systems. In recent years, these systems have been successfully competing with many subscription-based systems. The authors discuss the advantages of these databases in terms of coverage of research content in publication profiles as compared to that of commercial bibliographic platforms, as well as the wide range of functional capabilities. As illustrated by publication profiles of two research organizations and their authors, we describe original approaches to searching bibliographic information, as well as editing bibliographic errors in databases. These features enable (a) to monitor effectively the scholarly output of research organizations and authors, and (b) to enhance visibility of research findings in the international information space. Solving information-retrieval problems and editing publication profiles of Russian organizations and authors in Dimensions and Lens prove to be similar to that of commercial systems, i. e. Web of Science and Scopus. The vast experience of working with proprietary databases and subscription-based systems, would enable Russian academic libraries to adapt to new interfaces in a short time frame.

Prokofieva Y.D., Peksheva M.A.

Due to the limited access to the Web of Science and Scopus, scientific libraries are forced to look for alternative sources of bibliometric information. There has appeared the need to revise the methods and tools for conducting scientometric research and assessing scientific activity in general. Specialists’ attention to the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) has especially increased, which now most fully reflects the Russian document flow on scientific publications and has the analytical capabilities necessary to work with bibliometric indicators. In the Central Scientific Library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS), the methodology for scientometric analysis of the publication activity of scientific organizations of UB RAS has been reoriented to RSCI. The purpose of the study is to analyze the publication activity of a UB RAS scientific organization and test the RSCI tools for solving scientometric problems according to the developed methodology. The study revealed the need to revise the analysis criteria and methods of obtaining data according to the RSCI architecture. Conclusions are drawn on the effectiveness of RSCI tools for the purposes of the methodology, the correctness of the data obtained, and actions are proposed to improve the functionality of the system.

Schevchenko L.

The purpose of this study was to study online tools to support open science research processes, as a result of which a system of open tools to support scientific research (OIPSR) was built at the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the online platform “Library for Open Science”. To create a system, an analysis of existing open tools to support research processes was carried out. Online tools have been identified from a number of different sources. The tools were evaluated in terms of openness, freeness and accessibility under restrictions. The final list of open research support tools contains 137 tools. As a result, a system was created based on the stages of the entire cycle of scientific research – planning, searching, analyzing, writing, publishing, disseminating, evaluating. The found and selected tools were grouped according to research activities for all stages of scientific research. The developed system will allow scientific researchers to increase the efficiency of their scientific work, reduce the time to search for the necessary publications and data, make research workflows more open and reliable, which will contribute to the promotion of open science practices in our country.

Mokhnacheva Y., Tsvetkova V.

The paper reviewed the opportunities of various online products and services for searching for scientific information in the changed modern reality caused by the sanctions policy of a number of countries to Russia. Proprietary systems that stay on in Russia are characterized, as well as open access resources that allow receiving scientific, bibliometric, bibliographic and factual information. In addition, a list of Russian information products and scientific information search systems is presented. The resource data is supported by real examples describing the results obtained. All system and product names supported by URLs. The article is informational and does not aim to present the full radius of open and proprietary systems currently present online. The article shows various ways of information search by both ordinary users and specialists in the scientific and technical information sphere.

Gureev V., Mazov N.

The paper presents a review of function capabilities and coverage of sources in open bibliographic databases that can be useful in the limited access to proprietary information systems. Databases were primarily evaluated with regard to their usefulness for researchers and research libraries who solve the problems of information and patent search, bibliometric assessment of authors, promotion of papers in international information space, searching collaborators or conducting bibliometric studies. We focused on multidisciplinary databases covering wide range of international scientific literature. Based on our own experience and literature review, we concluded on possibility in principle to solve almost all information-retrieval and bibliometric tasks using current open bibliographic databases and their web-tools. Furthermore, large volumes of metadata are now regarded as a basic and non-unique feature of different databases, while analytical characteristics are taking centre stage.

Kalashnikova G.V.

Guskov A.E., Shrayberg Y.L.

The authors  examine  the  key problems  inhibiting  scientometric studies and  scientific  communications. These  challenges call  for significant  efforts  and professional courage. Firstly, this is the need for open access to scientometric data and improvement of their  quality  and comprehensiveness, including  author  data, affiliations, citations  and meta  information.  The authors  emphasize the  necessity for large-scale introduction of technologies for identifying  objects  of science  information   (i.  e.  publications,  researchers,  organizations,  projects,  etc.),  which would enable  to decrease significantly the number of bibliographic  mistakes.When projecting  scientometric studies, the  edge  of objects  and analysis  instruments have  to be defined  by the  goals  rather  than  by bibliometric  database limitations.  Indexing  of scientific  publications is among  the  key instruments. Its advancement is determined by emerging  and low-quality  classifications of bibliometric  databases, their  differences, and  changing  science  structure.  Finally, the propriety  of scientometric methods  and results  interpretation, in particular  that  of scientometric performance assessment, have to be controlled.    Meeting these challenges will enable  to provide  efficient  monitoring  of scientific  activity based on  operative  collection, processing  and  analysis  of scientific  information  flows rather  than  on annual  statistical surveys. This transfer  would improve monitoring significantly and expand  the spectrum  of solutions;  it would also enable  to reveal system changes  in research, to respond  to disparities  in development, and to make the solutions  in science management more efficient.

Huang X., Wang L., Liu W.

Identification of national research output is very common in bibliometric analyses and research evaluation. Searching appropriate country/territory names and using the country/territory refinement option are two methods provided by Scopus/Web of Science Core Collection to directly identify national research output. Using multi-source data, a recent but representative paper published in Scientometrics mapped computer science research in Africa, which was an important supplement to the existing literature. Forty-eight sub-Saharan African country/territory names were adopted to search in the country/territory field in Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection respectively to identify research output of sub-Saharan Africa. By repeating the above study, we find that the identification method is not always used accurately in practice, which may have some effect on the reliability of research. In addition, we further find that the above two national research output identification methods obtain different results for some countries/territories when using the Scopus database. Therefore, we probe this anomaly and try to provide explanations and give follow-up suggestions. We hope that the information conveyed in this brief communication will promote scholars to use the bibliographic databases more carefully in identifying national research output and provide more detailed data retrieval information to readers. At the same time, the providers of bibliographic databases should improve their products constantly based on recommendations from academics.

Gilyarevsky R.S.

Mokhnacheva Y.

The article presents comparative data concerning the types of the same publications in two of the world’s leading scientific information systems – Web of Science and Scopus – and publishers. The paper shows significant differences in the typification of documents in a sample of 4338 most actively cited works with Russian authorship of various types for the period 2010-2020. The article shows that the type of publication is not an obvious criterion: the same work can be assigned a different type depending on the source of information. The revealed discrepancies of information from various sources give grounds for a certain skepticism in the correctness of the formulation of tasks in the analysis of publication activity concerningthe accounting of publications of only certain types. The results of the study suggest that if it is necessary to take into account only certain types of publications, information about the types of documents should be verified with the original information from publishers.

Prokof’eva Y.D.

Scientometrics today is an effective tool to analyze and evaluate the activities of scientific organizations, as well as to form strategies and forecasts for the development of scientific research. To carry out scientometric research, specialists are required with the knowledge and skills to work with scientometric data. Such specialists can be employees of research libraries. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of the research library in carrying out scientometric works in the interests of research organizations. The article describes the experience of bibliometric analysis and the development of scientometrics in the Central Scientific Library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS). The study of the state of scientometrics in research organizations of UD RAS was carried out by the method of questionnaires. As a result, it is revealed that most often work in scientometric databases is carried out by scientific secretaries and deputy directors for scientific work. In some answers one can see a limited use of scientometric databases capabilities. Thus, the need for a specialist in scientometrics has been identified. Despite the indicated advantages of library specialists, the importance of interaction between a research organization and a library is emphasized for conducting a high-quality scientometric analysis.

Wilder E.I., Walters W.H.

Akoev M., Markusova V., Moskaleva O., Pislyakov V.

The second edition of Handbook on Scientometrics is designed to provide an overview of the field of scientometrics. The Handbook describes the history of creation of the breakthrough concept of citation indexing by Dr. Eugene Garfield, and development of the first multidisciplinary scholarly citation index, the Science Citation Index. Application of scientometric tools and methods in research management and resource allocation is discussed. Authors survey various scientometric indicators relevant to individual researchers, journals, research institutions and whole countries. Authors explore new types of indicators, such as altmetrics, relationship between scientometric indicators and the nature of scientific communication, and various methods of visualizing scientometric information. Possibilities and limitations of various scientometric techniques are examined. Authors highlight the need for an informed and reasonable approach to the use of quantitative indicators for research assessment. The Handbook includes Russian translations of two research reports by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). The Handbook is intended for use by researchers, science analysts, universities and research institutions administrators, libraries and information centers staff, graduate students, and the general reader interested in scientometrics and research evaluation.