The role and impact of document types in the world and Russian publication arrays based on WoS CC and Scopus

Abstract

The authors analyze the dynamics of Russian publication array against the global one by various types of publications, as well as the publications share and impact on Russia’s rating position. The analysis is based on two global polythematic resources, namely Web of Science Core Collection (WoS CC) and Scopus. The proceedings materials are the most significant factor of Russia’s contribution to W oS C C a nd S copus. B esides, R ussia’s rating i n W oS C C i s s ignificantly determined by the publications indexed in WoS CC Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) database. Using the obtained data, the authors demonstrate that, in particular years, the average citation of letters, book chapters, etc., was higher that research articles citation. This calls into question the expedience of tracking articles and reviews alone. The focus is also made on the conference proceedings in WoS CC and Scopus. This type of publications has been increasing dramatically in Russia while world dynamics is quite moderate. Citation of conference proceeding is lower than that of other types of publications, with some exceptions. Taking into account scholarly importance and relevance of conference proceedings, abandoning this type of publications is seen as misleading. Possibly, the conference proceedings are to be tracked separately considering ambiguity of their assessment. The authors also demonstrate that, due to different approaches to separation in publication types, the findings for WoS CC and Scopus differ significantly in both quantity and citation.