Scopus 1900–2020: Growth in articles, abstracts, countries, fields, and journals

Scientometric research often relies on large-scale bibliometric databases of academic journal articles. Long term and longitudinal research can be affected if the composition of a database varies over time, and text processing research can be affected if the percentage of articles with abstracts changes. This article therefore assesses changes in the magnitude of the coverage of a major citation index, Scopus, over 121 years from 1900. The results show sustained exponential growth from 1900, except for dips during both world wars, and with increased growth after 2004. Over the same period, the percentage of articles with 500+ character abstracts increased from 1% to 95%. The number of different journals in Scopus also increased exponentially, but slowing down from 2010, with the number of articles per journal being approximately constant until 1980, then tripling due to megajournals and online-only publishing. The breadth of Scopus, in terms of the number of narrow fields with substantial numbers of articles, simultaneously increased from one field having 1000 articles in 1945 to 308 in 2020. Scopus’s international character also radically changed from 68% of first authors from Germany and the USA in 1900 to just 17% in 2020, with China dominating (25%). Peer Review https://publons.com/publon/10.1162/qss_a_00177

Creditors' and Third Parties' Rights In Rem under European Union Regulations and the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law

The purpose of this article is to present the legal position of creditors and third parties secured by rights in rem. The analysis takes into consideration the situation when the bankruptcy of a debtor is declared. The purpose of the article is to present the regulation provided in European Union regulations. According to the European Union regulations, the opening of insolvency proceedings does not affect the rights in rem of creditors or third parties {to assets?} belonging to the debtor which are situated within the territory of another Member State at the time of the opening of insolvency proceedings. Therefore the question arises of whether the scale of protection of a secured creditor or of third parties' is too wide in comparison with other creditors. Moreover it is necessary to compare the European Union provisions with regulations of an international character. The provisions of the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law constitute a point of reference for a comparative analysis of this issue.

Monasteries, Holy Monks, Tridentine Saints: Port Cities of Seville and Valencia

Religious art in Valencia and Seville reflected the international character of these port cities, attracting a diverse patronage base as well as some of the most talented artists in Spain. The city of Valencia turned east toward the Mediterranean and the movement of artists and artworks around the sea reflected its political, economic, and cultural importance in the region. Seville was the administrative center for Spain’s American colonies and its influence spread across the Atlantic. The international scope of these ports meant that their artistic culture played a defining role in Counter-Reformation Spain. This article addresses several interrelated themes in the religious art of Valencia and Seville. The thematic threads explored here include the international character of these cities and their outward focus on the Mediterranean and the Americas, the role of secular and ecclesiastical art patrons in commissions of painting and sculpture, artistic solutions for the representation of complex imagery and the requirements of Counter-Reformation art, and the accommodation of artists to new tastes in art that reflected a changing political and economic climate. The extraordinary wealth of religious art produced in these two cities can be seen as a manifestation of a central tenet of the Catholic Church in Spain—the power of imagery to inspire, teach, delight, and admonish. Artists and patrons collaborated to forge and perpetuate a veritable industry of image-making that served political ends, addressed social concerns, and highlighted the piety and devotion of each city’s inhabitants in the 17th century.

“Free Kurdistan”: Difficult Road to Self-Determination (1970s — XXI Century)

The period of the struggle of South (Iraqi) Kurdistan for self-determination, namely such events as its transformation into the center of the Kurdish national movement in the Middle East and the proclamation of the Kurdish Autonomous Region (KAR) in 1974 is considered. The creation of a legal precedent, which has acquired an international character, is commented on. The recognition by the Iraqi government of the right of the Kurds to territorial autonomy is assessed as an undoubted success of the national movement of the Kurdish minority. It is noted that the development of the draft of Interim Constitution was preceded by a long discussion between Shiite Arabs, Sunni Arabs and Kurds on the future administrative structure of the country. It is shown that the Baathist regime was not going to solve the Kurdish problem in the country on a truly democratic basis, but only created the appearance of a solution to the issue in order to remove internal and international tensions. The author dwells on the repressive measures of the government of Saddam Hussein against the Kurds. The mass character of repressive measures during the Iranian-Iraqi war of 1980—1988 is emphasized.

Geopolitical Fractures

Today’s world is in the midst of sorting out the difference between its national fervour and its international character. It continues to struggle with its sovereign borders and a workforce that has no borders. Nations scamper to maintain their self-sufficiency while their populations’ demand for consumer goods is beyond their capacity to supply. Societies and countries wrestle with basic inequities baked into their culture and political systems that benefit few and alienate many. Geopolitical practitioners grasp for a handle on the tsunami of technology in which they are drowning while their citizens with access to that very wave are increasingly disenchanted with the status quo. This chapter examines the power of ideologies to enthrone and alienate, empower and marginalize. It looks at the importance of words and how their rhetorical use can stimulate, propagate, manipulate, and potentially subjugate. It observes the alienation, mistrust, and inequity that expose violence and unrest.

Affinities: Malangatana, Surrealism, and Black Liberatory Politics

This essay surveys surrealist elements in the early work of pioneering Mozambican artist Malangatana Ngwenya (1936–2011) and argues that his career reflects both the political ambitions and the international character of surrealism.

Problems of Typology of Armed Conflicts in Cyberspace

The development of information technologies in the modern world affects all spheres of human activity, including the sphere of military activities of states. The current level of development of military information technologies allows us to talk about a new fifth possible theatre of military operations, namely, cyberspace. The Tallinn Manual on International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations, developed in 2013 and updated in 2017 by experts from the NATO States, also confirms the likelihood of armed conflict in cyberspace. It is indisputable fact that cyber operations committed in the context of an armed conflict will be subject to the same rules of International Humanitarian Law that apply to such armed conflict. However, many cyber operations that can be classified as military operations may be committed in peacetime and are common cybercrimes. In such circumstances, it is imperative to distinguish between such cybercrimes and situations of armed conflict in cyberspace. Due to the fact, that there are only two types of armed conflict — international and non-international, this problem of differentiation raises the question of the typology of armed conflicts in relation to cyberspace. The main questions within the typology of cyber armed conflicts are: whether an international armed conflict can start solely as a result of a cyber-attack in the absence of the use of traditional armed force; and how to distinguish between ordinary criminal behaviour of individuals in cyberspace and non-international armed conflict in cyberspace? The purpose of this article is to provide answers to these urgent questions. The author analyses the following criteria that play a role in solving the above problems: criteria for assigning a cyber attack to a state and equating such a cyber-attack with an act of using armed force in a cyber armed conflict of an international character; and criteria for the organization of parties and the intensity of military actions in a non-international cyber armed conflict. Based on the results of this analysis, the author gives relevant suggestions for solving the above issues.

European Capitals of Culture. Visual Standardization Through Generic Images

Cities representing European Capitals of Culture (ECCs) are chosen to promote the diversity and multiculturalism of a global city. But this multicultural and international character comes with the price of standardization, a concept enhanced by the EU through the idea of togeth- erness, and individuals belonging to the same cultural space. Therefore, the visual communication of those cities can be more homogenized, less descriptive and without particularities related to a culture of a specific geo- graphic area. Following Jewitt, Bezemer and O`Halloran (2016), this paper aims to employ a multimodal analysis of images used by the local authori- ties of Plovdiv and Matera (European Capitals of Culture in 2019) on their websites. Therefore, it aims to demonstrate how these two cities communi- cate use generic images, focusing on what Machin and van Leeuwen (2007) identify as characteristics of global images, namely timelessness, low mo- dality, decontextualization and also relying on generic attributes, models and settings. As a result, images become more symbolical and conceptual, causing national identities to diminish in the viewers’ eyes, making cities seem familiar, thus enriching the togetherness of globalization.

Tax Avoidance and Transfer Pricing

Globalization has led multinational companies, beyond intensifying their competitiveness, to seek ways to maximize profits through tax avoidance. The international character enables them to transfer profits to tax havens or seek transactions that will enable them to avoid, postpone, or pay lower taxes. Although the previous allegations have been hypothesized by researchers, tax audits, and governments, it is difficult to prove due to the chaotic data and the causal relationship between variables. The present study compared the tax burden of 971 multinationals and 1,160 independent companies for the years 2010-2017 in Greece, using data from the Amadeus Tp-Catalyst database and confirmed previous research on significant differences in terms of profits and tax burdens. To the authors' knowledge, there has not been attempted such an extensive analysis for Greece in the past.