Bibliometric analysis of Russian publications’ quality in physical area, included to the Web of Science Core Collection Data Base

Abstract

The article analyzes the changes in the bibliometric characteristics of the array of Russian publications reflected in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS CC database) in the field of physics in 2018, compared to the same characteristics in 2010. The main parameter to assess the quality (research level) of arrays with bibliometric point of view was “Comprehensive index of quality” (CIQ) for the array of publications, calculated on the basis of one of the parameters in “Method for calculating the qualitative indicator of the state task “the Comprehensive performance score publication”...”, used by the Ministry of science and higher education of the Russian Federation. It was found that with an almost twofold increase in the volume of the array, there was a slight decrease in its quality in terms of CIQ in 2018 in comparison with 2010. The author also compared the characteristics of the array of Russian publications in 2018 with similar ones of the arrays on physical publications in Germany, India and Great Britain, located close to Russia in the ranking by the number of publications included in the WoS array (in this ranking, Russia was on the fourth place in 2018). In the ranking based on the CIQ indicator, the arrays of these countries are significantly ahead of the Russian one, and our country is only on the sixth place. The main reasons for this lag in the Russian publications array are identified. They are: a lower percentage of Russian publications in high-quartile journals and a greater number of publications from conference proceedings. The conclusion is made about the applicability of bibliometric analysis to identify trends in publishing activities in the scientific field.