Russian authorities declare moratorium on publication of materials in int'l scientific publications

MOSCOW. March 21 (Interfax) - The Russian government has declared a moratorium for scientific schools on indicators of the presence of publications indexed in the international databases Web of Science and Scopus for this year, Russian Education and Science Minister Valery Falkov said at a meeting with rectors of universities.

Besides, participation in international conferences is suspended, the Russian Education and Science Ministry said on its official Telegram channel.

"We need to re-think our work at this point and support Russian scientific publications, and also reduce the share of bibliometric and scientometric indicators in the evaluation of scientific teams that do fundamental, applied and socio-humanitarian research," the minister was quoted as saying in the report.

The moratorium on indicators does not mean a ban on publication, Falkov said. "We are not calling for a stop to publication in Web of Science and Scopus publications. Russia should remain on the frontier of global science. But we need to proceed from our national interests," the minister said.

The office of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said in early March the government planned to lift the requirement to have materials published in foreign scientific publications included in the quotation systems Web of Science and/or Scopus in the implementation of federal projects and programs, and also state assignments for scientific research. The deputy prime minister ordered the Education and Science Ministry to promptly put in place its own system for assessing the effectiveness of scientific research.

The Web of Science and Scopus platforms are the most quoted and prestigious for the publication of articles on scientific development and research. All materials are published on a commercial basis, and in that regard, the issue has been raised repeatedly in the Russian academic community of the need to develop domestic publications.

The issue gained prominence after sanctions were imposed on Russia in retaliation for the launch of the special military operation in Ukraine, which, among other things, affects technological cooperation with the Western countries.