Limits and Strategies for the Internationalization of Russian Economic Science: Sociological Interpretation of Bibliometric Data

Abstract

In the current context of the globalization of science, excellence is most often associated with internationalization and assessed through high-impact “international” (English-language) publications. Taking Russian economic science as a case study, this paper argues that the strategies of internationalization of national disciplinary fields are primarily determined by the parameters of the global economics itself. My analysis of the Russian publications in economics covered by Web of Science demonstrates that the very repertoire of international publication strategies of Russian authors is determined by the transnational system of communication in economics. Economics papers from peripheral nations are essentially assigned to regional or “area studies” periodicals, which do not belong to the core of the discipline. Publication in top economics journals requires a specific “international” competency usually obtained through doctoral training at Anglo-American or equivalent PhD programs and generally implies a delocalization of research objects and questions. In English, extended summary in Russian.