The contribution of universities to the production of basic scientific knowledge in Russia

Abstract

Modern Russia inherited the Soviet scientific system, in which the university sector was rather weakly involved in research activities. However, by now the situation has changed significantly. The Russian government has actively stimulated the development of science in universities. It is shown in this article that the contribution of the university sector to the production of scientific knowledge has grown significantly and is already comparable with the contribution of the research sector in a number of indicators. The results of scientific research in both sectors—university and research—are published in journals of a comparable level, and the levels of citation of these publications are also comparable. Note that in economics, psychology and psychiatry, and social sciences, the university sector dominates. In addition, researchers from universities are more involved in international scientific collaboration. However, the sector itself is heterogeneous. Its main scientific achievements are related to the results obtained in leading research universities.