According to Asdaa Kotani, Vice President of Springer Nature, over the last five years Russian scientists have increased the amount of publications by 4.1 %. Most of presented articles were developed by physicists, chemists, natural sciences and nanotechnology experts, who presented more articles than all their international colleagues. Furthermore about 76 % of current Russian research projects raise from collaboration with scientists from the USA, Germany, France, Spain, the UK and other countries.
“In 2015 Russian researchers presented about 49,000 articles, more than a half of which were published in Springer Nature. We will do everything in our power to support Russian scientists by offering them new services, and even to increase their publishing activity,” noted Mr. Kotani.
Asdaa Kotani also underlined that only 8-9% of all articles are appropriate for publishing. Springer Nature`s experts evaluate the quality of articles, both content and structure, and English language skills. The last one is very important because English serves as the official language of most of modern scientific journals.
To assist local scientists in their research work Springer Nature initiated its` own rep center in Russia. The name of the organization is “100by20,” which means that it is planned to publish 100,000 Russian articles in scientific journals by 2020.
“We assist researchers in making their articles readable as well as help to edit and translate them…Furthermore we support those who make presentations at international conferences and also audit scientific editions whose authors and editors may take part in seminars and workshops to learn about international guidelines and requirements for writing research papers,” said Matias Iher, head of 100by20.
The experts suppose that it is necessary to improve Russian scientific journals. In 2014 special Expert Council was organized so as to select the best ones for Scopus journal list. Its` experts control the quality of papers because any journal can be canceled from Scopus list if it doesn`t meet specific requirements. Olga Kirillova, president of Association of Science Editors and Publishers and a member of Scopus Expert Council, noted in her speech that it was possible to develop Russia`s analogue of Scopus that would cover the best articles written by local scientists in English. It is planned to deal with problems connected with keeping international rules by developing Russian Center for Scientific Review.
Alexander Biryukov, chief editor at Springer Nature, advised young researchers where and how to publish their first works: “It would be better for you to start with specialized scientific journals with typical indexation system. Moreover members of editorial board should be well-known in academic community.”
The participants of the summit also discussed achievements of International Research Center for Nanophotonics and Metamaterials. Its` research team headed by Pavel Belov, became well-known thanks to active sharing of their scientific projects and collaboration with researchers from all over the world.
For the six years the researchers have published about 250 papers in authoritative journals. The center has hired 10 international researchers who work in alliance with Russian colleagues. It constantly submits applications for grant programs and as a result receives 140 million rubles every year.
“We spend money given by grant programs for hiring high-grade experts that work on promising research projects. Having obtained the results we write articles in well-known journals influencing our reputation among global academic community. Thus the more authoritative our center is the more grants we receive,” said Mr. Belov.
