Economic Journals Published by Economic Research Institutes on Their Way to Joining International Scientometric Databases

Abstract

The paper assesses the current status of Russian journals published by economic research institutes, in particular, the journals' coverage in international science citation indices. It is revealed that the majority of economic journals currently indexed in Web of Science and Scopus international databases are published by academic institutes, primarily by those that had been part of the Economics Unit of the Department of Social Sciences at the Russian Academy of Sciences before the Academy was reformed. The paper aims to analyze the journals and find out whether they comply with the main criteria for integration into the international academic community. For this purpose we have chosen sixteen journals covered by the Russian Science Citation Index in the section “Economics and Economic Sciences”. Our findings indicate that editors make a lot of effort in order to bring their journals into line with the global publishing standards, and that many of the journals are ready to be integrated into the international academic space. The paper defines the tasks that some editors should address in the near future. Our conclusion shows the necessity of creating a sustainable system taking into account the entire set of factors that promote the existence and competitiveness of the journals and aimed at providing them with continuous and comprehensive support. The results of the analysis can be used by publishers who need to work out their development strategies, and by any scientific periodicals that are willing to develop and integrate themselves into the international information system.