Russian Contribution to Research on Virology: Bibliometrics Analysis, 2000-2019 on Web of Science
Valentina Markusova, Anna Zolotova
Journal of Science and Technology Metrics, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2022.
DOI: https://doi.org/ 10.6025/jstm/2022/3/2/47-54
Link: https://www.dline.info/jstm/fulltext/v3n2/jstmv3n2_3.pdf
Abstract:
The speedy development of the Russian vaccine, â€œSputnik-V,â€ created by the Gamaleya National Research

Center (the Gamaleya NRC), attracted great attention worldwide. However, it resulted from many Russian scholarâ€™sâ€ contri- butions to virology research (Kramer A., 2020). This project aims to provide insights into important research development on

virology through empirical analysis of Russian publications from 2000-to 2019. The metadata was retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection and InCites (Clarivate Anal.). The search strategy was discussed with an expert on virology. The Russian research performance (RP) growth rate was significantly higher - 290%, then the growth rate (190%) of the world dataset on virology from 2000 to 2019. The Dataset of Russian RP consisted of 6,636 records. A more detailed analysis was focused on the period 2015-2019.

We selected for analysis three organizations that produced vaccines available for inoculation against COVID-19. These organizations are the Gamaleya National Research Center (the Gamaleya NRC) of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (RAMS), the State Research Center of Virology & Biotechnology (Vector), and the K.M.Chumakov Federal Research Center (Chumakov FRC).

Among three organizations, publications of the Chumakov FRC had shown the highest value of all bibliometric indicators (nCites). The quality of publications is high: more than 69.3% of articles published in journals belonged to Q1 and Q2 quartiles. The Gamaleya NRC has the highest number of publications (394 records). Its researchers prefer to publish their results in Russian journals: the share of Q3 and Q4 journals was more than 57%. The â€œVectorâ€ is a prominent organization on new vaccine development and production (Wilson C., 2002). It is strongly focused on domestic collaboration (67.0%)

compared with two other organizations and total Russian RP (29.0%). Its share (56%) of domestic collaboration is approxi- mately twice higher than its share (29.4%) of international collaboration (IC ). The leader of this collaboration was the

Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine of the Siberian Branch (SB) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Despite the low level of IC (19%), the USA is still the leading partner (10.8%).

Funding agencies (FAs) have played an essential role in the research community in Russia since 1994. The leading FA was the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), followed by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) in 2015-2019. The National Institute of Health (NIH) played a significant role in Russian research on virology. The USA lost its dominance. Our results could benefit research, funding agencies, and health policy decision-makers.