In ancient times, the invaders were paid tribute. At first, the country was captured or raided and taxed, and the whole country paid it for a very long time, sometimes for centuries, as during the Tatar-Mongol invasion. Times have changed, the methods of obtaining additional income have become more humane and refined, and it is possible to tax the whole country without wars and a single shot.. This will require, for example, only one decision of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MES) on the mandatory availability of publications in publications included in the scientometric databases Web of Sciens and Scopus (WoS, Sc) in order to obtain academic titles, academic degrees, positions.
Then this initiative was picked up, supported and developed by everyone who could, to introduce mandatory requirements for the availability of such publications for the heads of scientific works, even funded by national funds, to receive the titles of laureates of various scientific awards, etc..
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As a result, the decision of the Ministry of Education and Science and the initiatives of a number of officials led to the forced formation in the country of a large paid market for publishing services in the publications WoS, Sc. Now the indiscriminate use of coercion to publish in WoS, Sc editions has become one of the main problems in the development of science, along with 30 years of underfunding.
Moreover, none of the leadership of the Ministry of Education and Science, which made this decision, nor from numerous law enforcement agencies, thought of checking the final beneficiaries, that is, the beneficiaries, from the introduction of publications in the publications WoS, Sc. If the owners of Microsoft, Coca-Cola or other large companies, both global and Ukrainian, are known, then no one knows the owners of scientometric databases WoS, Sc. But regularly pays them his money. And it may happen that Ukrainian scientists pay tribute to the citizens of a neighboring aggressor country. There have always been many masters of building various virtuoso schemes for selecting the money of their compatriots. And there are quite a few disguised editions of WoS, Sc, which seem to be not from a neighboring country at all, but by searching by indirect signs, for example, by the location of the printing house in which the paper version of the publication was printed, or the recipient's bank, one can establish the country of origin of the publication for some of the publications.
If we compare the price for publications in authoritative domestic professional publications and in WoS, Sc publications, then the difference will be tens and hundreds of times. That is, this is our tribute to foreign publishing systems and scientometric databases.
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But this decision is extremely harmful for the country, the development of science and poses a threat to national security for the following reasons..
Since most of the publications of WoS, Sc are located abroad, the payment for publications by Ukrainian scientists in foreign currency is sent abroad. The cheapest publication in WoS, Sc editions, often with a dubious reputation, costs $500 or more. And publications in really solid publications of the first quartile cost from 2 thousand. Doll. That is, this decision organized the annual withdrawal of tens of millions of dollars of foreign currency from the country.. And this is when the National Bank of Ukraine constantly and persistently fights for the stability of the national currency, and from friendly countries comes financial assistance unprecedented over the past 60 years to maintain the financial stability of Ukraine. At the same time, the currency from our country is not directed to the supply of critical imports, the purchase of unique technologies, equipment, the organization of import substitution, but to pay for publications in the publications WoS, Sc.
Even the withdrawal of budget funds from the country for publications of individuals in the publications WoS, Sc. To do this, it is necessary to include the costs of publication in the estimate of scientific work carried out for budgetary funds by order of budgetary funds managers.. And after that, the budget funds in transit through an institution of higher education or a scientific institution will go abroad. I would like the Ministry of Education and Science to give examples of countries in which budget funds are almost directly transferred abroad. Moreover, unequal conditions are created for scientists, when the publications of some are paid for by budgetary funds, while others must pay for their publications themselves from rather modest salaries.. And now the MON with its letter dated 14. 03. 2023 No. 1/3626-23 to all institutions of higher education and scientific institutions “initiates the development of a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On state support for publications of Ukrainian scientists in foreign scientific publications”. As they write further: “In order to develop an effective mechanism for state support and financing of publications of Ukrainian scientists, as well as taking into account the interests of all interested parties, we ask you to study this issue and submit proposals for a draft resolution”.
That is, by a decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science plans to start a mass and official withdrawal of budget funds from the country to “take into account the interests of all interested parties” along with the previously organized withdrawal of funds from scientists. It is interesting that the Ministry of Education and Science, as the central executive body, itself can no longer even prepare a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and shifts its preparation to scientists.. Or wants to present the prepared project as an initiative from below, from science.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Education and Science has never prepared documents on support for scientific publications of Ukraine or publications of Ukrainian scientists in these publications.. And state support for publications of Ukrainian scientists in foreign scientific publications to “take into account the interests of all interested parties” is already initiated by.
By the decision of the central government body, scientists were forced to be involved in publications exclusively in WoS, Sc and the publishing market of Ukraine was organized with monopoly ownership of two foreign publishing systems with unknown ultimate owners, which generally contradicts the fundamentals of a market economy.
Instead of creating a national scientometric base and a national scientific publishing system, the existing one is being destroyed, and it can be predicted that in 2023 and 2024 many of our scientific publications will die out, including those that have existed for decades.
The experience of neighboring Poland, which for several years has made the development of its scientific publishing system a priority in the development of science, and a number of other countries shows that national science can develop calmly and systematically without being forced to publish in WoS, Sc. In Poland, they simply created their own national system for assessing the activities of science, in which publications in national scientific journals are rated at 20-100 points, and in foreign journals, including WoS, Sc, they are much lower.. An exception is made only for publications in some truly world-class journals, in which the scores are high.. Every year, the relevant Ministry of Poland reviews the list of journals that allow you to receive points for publications.. We have a similar list of scientific professional journals with high publication requirements, but why it exists is not clear..
In Ukraine, about two-thirds of scientists belong to the technical and natural sciences, the main result of which should be the development of new technologies, the creation of new jobs based on developments, extra-budgetary funds from the execution of orders, created patents, license agreements for the implementation of intellectual property. But if you look at the real performance of science, for example, at the statistics of Ukrpatent on applications for patents, inventions, utility models, then you can cry. And, looking at the statistics of licensing agreements, I want to say with words from the singer’s repertoire - “something very indecent is asking me to speak”.
A similar situation with the order of scientific services. Assessing the real performance of science in terms of specific indicators, one can understand whether it is a science, or a science that imitates activity and can exist only for budgetary funds.. The evaluation of scientific activity solely on the basis of the number of publications in the WoS, Sc editions does not allow us to evaluate almost nothing.. Interestingly, the vast majority of popularizers of WoS, Sc publications are representatives of technical and natural sciences..
The implementation of scientific research that gives concrete results has been replaced by an imitation of scientific activity in the form of a race for paid publications in WoS, Sc publications.
The withering away of publications of personal and collective monographs, which present the fundamental results of many years of scientific research, has begun. Monographic publications are replaced by short paid publications in WoS, Sc editions. This is most clearly seen in the example of university science, where monographs are already becoming a rare occurrence.. And in the future, we can expect the complete disappearance of monographic publications in Ukrainian science, and at the same time - significant scientific results..
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Recommendations.
Urgent refusal of preferences to WoS, Sc publications and creation of a national publishing system of scientific literature with the priority of professional publications and a national scientometric database.
Creation of a national system for evaluating educational institutions, scientific institutions and researchers based on complex evaluation indicators, which would take into account appropriately national publications and other types of scientific activity, and not focus only on WoS, Sc editions.
Read more articles by Vladimir Khaustov at the link.