Problems of Adaptation of Russian Scholarly Journals to International Publication Standards

AbstractThe ever-increasing competitiveness in the academic publishing market incentivizes journal editors to pursue higher impact factors. This translates into journals becoming more selective, and, ultimately, into higher publication standards. However, the fixation on higher impact factors leads some journals to artificially boost impact factors through the coordinated effort of a “citation cartel” of journals. “Citation cartel” behavior has become increasingly common in recent years, with several instances being reported. Here, we propose an algorithm—named CIDRE—to detect anomalous groups of journals that exchange citations at excessively high rates when compared against a null model that accounts for scientific communities and journal size. CIDRE detects more than half of the journals suspended from Journal Citation Reports due to anomalous citation behavior in the year of suspension or in advance. Furthermore, CIDRE detects many new anomalous groups, where the impact factors of the member journals are lifted substantially higher by the citations from other member journals. We describe a number of such examples in detail and discuss the implications of our findings with regard to the current academic climate.

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Publishing in Scholarly Journals: Part 1-Is It an Attitude or Technique? It's an Attitude

Counselor Education and Supervision ◽

10.1002/j.1556-6978.1998.tb00546.x ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 37 (4) ◽

pp. 218-223 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Marlowe H. Smaby ◽

Judith Crews

Keyword(s):

Scholarly Journals

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Articles of interest in other scholarly journals

BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care ◽

10.1136/bmjspcare-2015-001066 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 325-327

Author(s):

Jason Boland

Keyword(s):

Scholarly Journals

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Peer review and gender bias: A study on 145 scholarly journals

Science Advances ◽

10.1126/sciadv.abd0299 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. eabd0299

Author(s):

Flaminio Squazzoni ◽

Giangiacomo Bravo ◽

Mike Farjam ◽

Ana Marusic ◽

Bahar Mehmani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Peer Review ◽

Gender Bias ◽

Gender Gap ◽

Gender Diversity ◽

Scholarly Journals ◽

Publication Rates ◽

And Gender ◽

Editorial Decisions ◽

Selection Of

Scholarly journals are often blamed for a gender gap in publication rates, but it is unclear whether peer review and editorial processes contribute to it. This article examines gender bias in peer review with data for 145 journals in various fields of research, including about 1.7 million authors and 740,000 referees. We reconstructed three possible sources of bias, i.e., the editorial selection of referees, referee recommendations, and editorial decisions, and examined all their possible relationships. Results showed that manuscripts written by women as solo authors or coauthored by women were treated even more favorably by referees and editors. Although there were some differences between fields of research, our findings suggest that peer review and editorial processes do not penalize manuscripts by women. However, increasing gender diversity in editorial teams and referee pools could help journals inform potential authors about their attention to these factors and so stimulate participation by women.

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Biblical Interpretation among African-American New Testament Scholars

Currents in Biblical Research ◽

10.1177/1476993x05055640 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 57-82

Author(s):

Larry L. Enis

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

African Americans ◽

Ethnic Minorities ◽

New Testament ◽

Biblical Interpretation ◽

Biblical Studies ◽

Biblical Hermeneutics ◽

Scholarly Journals ◽

The New Testament ◽

Epistle Of James

Given the small, but growing, number of ethnic minorities in the field of biblical studies, the issue of African-American biblical hermeneutics has received only marginal attention in scholarly journals. In an effort to discern major themes and objectives among these interpreters, this article surveys published works by African Americans who have attained either a PhD or ThD in the New Testament. In this study, six areas of particular interest emerged: hermeneutics, the black presence in the New Testament, Paul, the Gospels, the epistle of James, and Revelation. Moreover, this investigation will demonstrate that the phenomenon of African-American New Testament hermeneutics is a methodologically diverse one.

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Notes from the Editors

American Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s0003055414000185 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 108 (2) ◽

pp. iii-ix

Keyword(s):

Basic Research ◽

Decision Makers ◽

The Other ◽

Good Effect ◽

Scholarly Journals ◽

Other Hand ◽

Relevant Work

We introduce this issue with a thought. There has been much made of the need for our discipline to be “policy relevant,” and much ridicule has been directed at the Review recently that comments how little the Review offers that is relevant for decision makers. But what does it mean to be policy relevant? Generally, scholarly journals publish the best in basic research, which hopefully can be used by those in positions of authority to good effect. This often means that there are no catchy titles, nor opinion-editorial pieces that are so often portrayed as the model of policy relevant work. In our view, the role of the Review is to expand knowledge on important scholarly questions, not only to publish work that is currently popular or somehow ordained as useful by pundits. There is certainly a place for such work, but not in the pages of the Review. On the other hand, we as the editors of the Review understand the need to make the Review accessible to as broad an audience as possible, and we have made great efforts to do just that.

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