Russian Science Citation Index on the WoS platform: a critical assessment
ISSN: 0022-0418
Article publication date: 13 August 2019
Issue publication date: 12 September 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the journals of the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) (Web of Science platform) in respect to publication misconduct and predatory practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper employs formal criteria developed by the Disseropedia of Russian Journals (a.k.a. the Journal Project of the Russian Dissernet).
Findings
A substantial number of the RSCI journals violate publishing ethics and/or are involved in predatory practices (fake peer-review, plagiarism and self-plagiarism, publication of pseudoscientific papers and so on). The general trend is negative: the number of such journals was higher in July 2018 than in 2015 when the RSCI was launched. The authors propose that this situation is due to the non-transparent and partly defective process of journal selection involved; primarily it can be attributed to problems with the RSCI expert pool.
Research limitations/implications
Many cases of publication misconduct are inevitably overlooked due to natural limitations of the tools.
Originality/value
The approach and methods were developed by the Disseropedia of Russian Journals and the Dissernet for the specific local Russian situation, where the scientific and editorial community is corrupt and the institution of reputation does not work properly. The authors believe that the experience may also be helpful for scientists and academic officials from other countries.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
A preliminary version of this paper was published in Russian in the independent newspaper of Russian scientists Troitsky Variant — Science, August 14, 2018 (https://trv-science.ru/2018/08/14/rsci-2018/). The authors are grateful to Anna Kuleshova (Committee on Publication Ethics of the Russian Association of Science Editors and Publishers, Moscow) who maintains the database of Russian retracted articles (https://rasep.ru/sovet-po-etike/retracted-articles), for her valuable help in RSCI journal list analysis.
Citation
Kassian, A. and Melikhova, L. (2019), "Russian Science Citation Index on the WoS platform: a critical assessment", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 75 No. 5, pp. 1162-1168. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-02-2019-0033
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited