Foresight and STI Governance Maintains Leading Positions in Academic Journal Rankings

The Foresight and STI Governance journal published by the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge is included in the first (top) level of the Russian White List, which will be applied to assess researchers’ publication activity instead of the quartiles of academic publication rankings. The journal has also improved its performance in the leading international database Scopus which has recently updated its lists of peer-reviewed scientific journals, once again confirming its place in the first quartile (Q1).

The Russian White List of Journals was created in November 2022 by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education interdepartmental working group comprising representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Centre for Scientific Information, major domestic universities, and research organisations. Currently the list includes over 30 thousand Russian and international academic publications, which in May 2023 have been ranked and broken down into four levels (comparable to international scientific citation databases’ quartiles).

Experts include in ‘white’ lists of journals highest-quality, most reputable publications in the relevant field of knowledge or general science. These lists serve as reference for authors, reviewers, editors, and funding organisations in assessing journals’ quality and reputation in the academic community. The first such list was compiled in 1963 in the United States, and since then the practice was adopted by many other countries. E.g. Norway, Finland, Sweden maintain their own white lists of journals. The citation indices of the international databases Scopus and Web of Science essentially are also white lists of peer-reviewed journals, regularly reassessed by experts.
There are also ‘black’ lists of journals which do not meet academic quality standards (e.g. Cabell's Blacklist), or of those no longer indexed, in particular for this very reason (e.g. Scopus Discontinued List).

Simultaneously with the Russian white list of journals, the leading international database Scopus’s peer-reviewed academic journal ranking was also updated. Foresight and STI Governance has improved its performance, once again confirming its place in the first quartile (Q1).

A journal’s place in a ranking is determined by its citation indicators: the number of references to its articles in other journals, or different kind of publications. The ‘weight’ of the citing publication is of particular importance, i.e. its inclusion in the first quartile of WoS and/or Scopus.

Foresight and STI Governance’s focus on covering ‘big topics’ helps the journal attract highly cited authors who prefer to publish exclusively in Q1 journals. As the analysis of the most cited articles throughout the journal’s entire history shows (it’s published in English since 2014), the following topics command particular interest of the academic audience: Industry 4.0, digital transformation and its impact on labour markets; human capital and new competencies; innovation ecosystems, and the role of universities in their emergence. The editors traditionally pay special attention to blending qualitative and quantitative foresight methods.

The top-5 most cited Foresight and STI Governance articles are as follows:

87 citations

Quadruple Innovation Helix and Smart Specialization: Knowledge Production and National Competitiveness (2016) Carayannis E., Grigoroudis E.

83 citations

Industry 4.0: New Challenges and Opportunities for the Labour Market (2017). Kergroach S.

59 citations

Generic and Specific Skills as Components of Human Capital: New Challenges for Education Theory and Practice (2019). Kuzminov Y., Sorokin P., Froumin I.

43 citations

The Knowledge Triangle Between Research, Education and Innovation — A Conceptual Discussion (2017). Unger M., Polt W.

40 citations

The Risks of Digitalization and the Adaptation of Regional Labour Markets in Russia (2019). Zemtsov S., Barinova V., Semenova R.

In recent years, researchers also showed an interest in issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. A good example is the paper How COVID-19 Pandemics Influences Chinese Economic Sustainability (2020) (25 citations so far) co-authored by Russian and Chinese researchers, presenting an assessment of Chinese regions’ development prospects after their economic ties have been affected by the pandemic restrictions.

An important aspect of the Foresight and STI Governance’s editorial policy is hosting round table discussions of important issues on the scientific agenda. Many participants write interesting articles based on their presentations. E.g. after the January round table discussion The Economics of Complexity and Hidden Growth Opportunities several papers have been written already, which will be published in the next issues.