Preprint Analysis of publications by authors of Ukrainian institutes in Scopus-delisted titles.docx

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Analysis of publications by authors of Ukrainian institutes in Scopus-delisted titles

Serhii Nazarovets

serhii.nazarovets@gmail.com

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5067-4498

Abstract

In Ukraine, Scopus data are used to evaluate academics. Existing shortcomings in the Ukrainian evaluation

system allow them to publish in titles that have been delisted from Scopus, and continue to use those papers as

credible research output for evaluation. The purpose of this study was to analyze the publishing activity of

Ukrainian institutions in Scopus-delisted titles (September 2021) in different fields between 2011 and 2020 and

to attempt to appreciate how common this practice is among Ukrainian authors. Scopus was sourced to collect

bibliographic and citations-related data, while SciVal was used to analyze these data. The findings suggest that

for 17 Ukrainian institutions, papers from titles that have been delisted from Scopus still play an important part

of the publication achievement of their employees. In particular, in the field of economics, econometrics, and

finance, 46.92% of Ukrainian papers were published in a title that was excluded from Scopus. Moreover, the

analysis indicated that in two Ukrainian institutions, the level of citation of such papers significantly exceeds the

average number of citations to Scopus-indexed papers in the same year and in the same field. Given that

bibliometric indicators are also used for research assessment in other Eastern European countries, the results of

this paper are applicable to a wider geographic context.

Key points

●Ukrainian evaluation practices allow authors to be rewarded for publications in Scopus-delisted titles,

as equally as publications in more prestigious journals, amplifying the number of papers by Ukrainian

researchers in such titles.

●For 17 Ukrainian institutions and universities, publications in Scopus-delisted titles accounted for a

large percentage of their total number of publications, and in the field of economics, econometrics and

finance, 46.92% of papers from Ukraine were published in Scopus-delisted titles.

●The citation of Ukrainian papers in Scopus-delisted titles significantly exceeds the number of citations

to papers in Scopus-indexed journals in the same year and field.

This is the submitted version of a paper published in Learned Publishing. Please cite as:

Nazarovets, S. (2022), Analysis of publications by authors of Ukrainian institutes in Scopus-delisted titles.

Learned Publishing, 35(4): 499-515. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1464

Introduction

In Ukraine, as in many Eastern European countries, quantitative data from Scopus and the Web of Science

(WoS) Core Collection are qualitative and quantitative indicators that are used at the state level to evaluate

research results, to make promotion-related decisions, to distribute financial awards, and also to evaluate

applications for funding of research projects (Zacharewicz et al., 2019; Sivertsen, 2020; Jappe, 2020). In the

national evaluation systems of these countries, bibliometrics form part of a set of indicators that are used to

distribute research funding. For instance, according to research evaluation in the Czech Republic, universities

score points for papers published in Scopus-indexed journals or in journals with a non-zero Clarivate impact

factor (Fiala, 2013). In the evaluation system in Romania, papers that are published in journals that are indexed

in Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports (JCR) have a greater weight during assessment (Vîiu, Păunescu &

Miroiu, 2016). In Slovakia, publications in journals that are indexed in WoS and Scopus databases are required

to obtain an academic position (Ciaian, Lancaric & Pokrivcak, 2018). In Russia, a program to increase the

competitiveness of universities pays considerable attention to publications indexed in WoS and Scopus (Guskov,

Kosyakov & Selivanova, 2018).

In Poland, publications in journals indexed in JCR were previously rated higher than publications in journals not

included in this list (Korytkowski & Kulczycki, 2019). However, in 2018, Poland adopted new national rules, or

Law 2.0, also referred to as the Constitution for Science, which does not mention specific lists of scientific

publications, but only indicates “international databases of the [sic] scientific journals with the broadest

coverage” (MSHE, 2018).

Belarus is another example of an Eastern European country that does not use Scopus or WoS data directly in its

national research evaluation system. Belarus uses lists of scientific publications for research evaluation, for

example, in the process of awarding an academic degree (HAC, 2014). The peculiarity of these lists is that they

contain many national non-English language journals. Curiously, national journals are widely represented in the

Hungarian Scientific Bibliography (HSB), which plays a key role in research evaluation in Hungary (Csomós,

2020). However, this Hungarian national publication and citation database also contains data and indicators

from commercial databases. In particular, journals’ quartiles according to the Scimago portal, which uses

Scopus data, are integrated into HSB to evaluate journals .

The quality of the content and the reliability of the bibliometric indicators provided by WoS and/or Scopus

databases are very important for users in these countries. Today, scientific communication suffers from problems

associated with so-called “predatory” journals and fake publications (Gasparyan et al., 2016). Publishers of such

journals and conference proceedings are not interested in conducting quality peer review of author's

manuscripts, seeking instead to draw a publication fee from as many authors as possible, regardless of the

scientific quality of the manuscripts they publish (McLeod, Savage, & Simkin, 2018). There is no doubt that the

owners of such suspicious journals are interested in having their journal titles indexed in WoS and Scopus

databases in order to increase their number of potential clients. It is also clear that authors originating from

countries where indicators from these global commercial databases are used in evaluation processes risk falling

victim to such pseudo-journals, especially if the authors are under pressure by their employer to publish, and are

unsure of their ability to present results in authoritative journals (Xia et al., 2015).

New titles are added to Scopus and the WoS Core Collection only after they have been carefully evaluated by

2 3

relevant experts. In addition to evaluating journals for inclusion, these experts also examine journals that are

already indexed in Scopus and WoS. If the indexed journal demonstrates unethical behavior, or if the quality of

the journal's publications or its bibliometric indicators no longer meet the database’s criteria, then indexation of

current issues of such journals is stopped. For example, titles may cease to be indexed in Scopus for different

reasons: low quantitative bibliometrics indicators of the title compared to other titles in the same subject field,

concerns about the publisher’s publication standards, or journal outlier behavior.

The list of journal titles that have been delisted from Scopus is regularly updated and publicly available on the

Elsevier website. Unfortunately, the list of WoS-delisted titles is not publicly available, so this study is limited to

an analysis of Scopus-delisted titles. In Scopus, the term “discontinued” is used to refer to titles whose newly

published papers are no longer indexed in this database. However, most of these titles continue to be published,

3https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/journal-evaluation-process-and-selection-criteria/

2https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/how-scopus-works/content/content-policy-and-selection

1https://www.mtmt.hu/sites/default/files/utmutatok/szakteruleti_folyoiratrangsor_az_mtmt-ben_20161025.pdf

and only their indexation in Scopus has stopped. In order not to confuse readers, this study uses the adjective

“delisted” to denote these titles.

During 2011-2020, 678 titles were delisted from Scopus. Figure 1 indicates that the Scopus experts began to

actively re-evaluate and suspend the indexing of publications in 2016. Figure 2 presents the percentage of

publications that have been delisted from Scopus based on subject areas from 2011-2020. Most of the

Scopus-delisted titles are in the fields of engineering (34%), computer science (9%), and materials science (8%).

Fig. 1 Number of Scopus-delisted titles in 2010-2020

Fig. 2 Percentage of publications in Scopus-delisted titles by subject areas in 2011-2020

However, even if current issues of a particular journal title are no longer indexed, already indexed papers of this

title are not deleted from the database (except in rare cases). Thus, authors can be cited (and self-cite), even

papers that have been published in delisted titles, allowing, to some extent, the bibliometrics indicators of

scientists, research groups, and entire institutions to improve (Cortegiani et al., 2020; Moussa, 2021). This

feature of indexing content in Scopus and WoS creates difficulties for bibliometric analyses or research

evaluation because it might distort the results. The systematic inclusion of such papers and their citations in the

process of evaluating research output, and equating them to quality peer-reviewed work, may have negative

consequences for scientific development.

In this study, "delisted titles" are not equated with "predatory/fake titles". Previous studies claimed that

potentially predatory journal titles are also indexed in Scopus (Marina & Sterligov, 2021). However, as argued

by Krawczyk & Kulczycki (2021), the term "predatory journal" is quite controversial and in practice it is

difficult to establish unambiguous formal criteria for identifying illegitimate scientific titles (Teixeira da Silva et

al., 2022; Yamada & Teixeira da Silva, 2022). The author is of the opinion that there is a distinct difference

between predatory and Scopus-delisted journal titles. Truly predatory journals are not interested in quality peer

review or adherence to high publishing standards, and their primary goal is to obtain article processing charges

(APCs) from authors, in the case of open access journals (Xia, 2015). The behavior of many journal titles that

were later excluded from Scopus, in the first years of their indexation, did not differ considerably from other

journals in the same field. Suspicious behavior, which is inherent in predatory journals, including very rapid

growth in the number of papers, typifies the behavior of select journals in their more recent years of indexing in

Scopus. Such a decline in quality may have occurred for a variety of reasons, and not necessarily due to the

transformation of the journal into an overtly predatory title. For example, an editorial office may have started to

work with so-called “paper mills”, which imitate the work of editorial services but instead offer their clients the

sale of papers, citations of previous work, thereby artificially raising individual metrics, or selling authorship

(Rivera & Teixeira da Silva, 2021; Else & Van Noorden, 2021; Abalkina, 2021).

Independent of the reasons, there is no doubt that the exclusion of a journal title from a database is related to a

decrease in the quality and metrics of its scientific content. Therefore, to characterize delisted titles, the epithet

"questionable" can be used (Eykens et al., 2019; Nelhans & Bodin, 2020).

An author who may have become the victim of aggressive marketing by a questionable journal might be

unaware of that journal’s problems with peer review and/or compliance with other academic publishing

standards (Cobey et al., 2019; Krauskopf, 2018). Today, many scholars are under pressure from their university

administration, which requires them to constantly produce papers (Mills & Inouye, 2021). Accordingly, since

some scholars worry that they will not be able to publish in authoritative journals, they may prefer to submit to

questionable titles (Shaghaei et al., 2018; Mertkan, Onurkan Aliusta & Suphi, 2021). However, some scholars

are consciously collaborating with predatory publishers to systematically improve their bibliometrics and

receive undeserved government awards (Pond et al., 2019), some of whom may feign ignorance as a screen to

justify their unethical behavior (Frandsen, 2019). Also, many universities and funders inadvertently support

questionable publishers when the leaders of these universities use erroneous guidelines and are primarily

interested in achieving certain quantitative indicators of scientific output (Siler et al., 2021). Therefore, the facts

of publication of articles in delisted titles need to be carefully verified by experts in charge of scientific

evaluation.

Use of citation databases in Ukrainian research evaluation

Ukraine is the largest country in Central-Eastern Europe. It regained its independence in 1991 after the collapse

of the Soviet Union. However, the young Ukrainian democracy still cannot logically complete a number of

important reforms, including in the fields of education and science (Hladchenko, 2020). The lack of

transparency of evaluation of scientific achievements, doubts about the relevance of research productivity of

many Ukrainian institutions, and frequent cases of plagiarism in scientific papers have led to the devaluation of

expert evaluation in Ukraine. Ukrainian taxpayers have accumulated many questions about the transparency of

the procedure for allocating public funding for research, as well as the procedure for awarding academic titles to

research and teaching positions. In order to change this situation for the better, Ukrainian officials have

attempted to supplement expert assessments with formal bibliometric indicators.

In Ukraine, since Soviet times, there has been a two-level system of academic degrees – Candidate of Sciences

(PhD) and Doctor of Sciences (DSc) (a higher degree which may be earned after the Candidate of Sciences), as

well as a two-level system of academic ranks – Docent (Associate Professor) and Professor. Previously, in order

to obtain a degree in Ukraine, it was necessary to have published a certain number of articles in Ukrainian

journals included in the List of Professional Publications of Ukraine, regardless of the number of articles in

foreign journals. This irritated some leading Ukrainian scientists, who sought to present their results primarily in

influential foreign journals, rather than in local Ukrainian journals with a restricted readership. One of the first

initiatives to implement bibliometrics at the national level was the Order of the Ministry of Education, Science,

Youth and Sports of Ukraine (MESU, 2012). According to MESU, publications in journals included in

“international scientometric databases” were equivalent to publications in Ukrainian journals for obtaining

Doctor of Sciences and Candidate of Sciences degrees. However, the text of the Order did not contain a list of

these databases, and therefore applicants could, as such, consider their papers published in almost any foreign

journals and conference proceedings. At the same time, most Ukrainian authors simply continued to publish

mainly in Ukrainian journals (Hladchenko & Moed, 2021).

The portal of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine presents information on more than 2,800 Ukrainian

journals . In contrast, Scopus only indexes just over 100 Ukrainian journals. The vast majority of Ukrainian

journals publish articles in Ukrainian, but these titles are poorly represented in reference databases, so

researchers from other countries rarely use these journals. Changes in the approach to the evaluation of research

in Ukraine have significantly affected the choice of communication channels of Ukrainian scientists to present

research results. For example, over the past 10 years, the annual number of publications by Ukrainian scientists

in Scopus-indexed titles has more than doubled, 8,400 documents in 2011 versus more than 19,700 documents

in 2020. It should be noted that this increase in the number of documents was accompanied by an increase in the

number of publications by Ukrainian authors in Ukrainian journals indexed in Scopus (Nazarovets, 2020).

Nevertheless, it can be stated that, at least in quantitative terms, Ukrainian national initiatives to use information

from citation databases to assess research output have yielded some positive results.

For the first time, a clear requirement for Ukrainian scientists to have publications in journals that are included

in the WoS Core Collection or Scopus appeared in 2015 in the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine

on approval of the license conditions for educational activities (Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, 2015a). In

2015, publications in international journals began to be taken into account for obtaining an academic rank

(MESU, 2015b). Updated in 2017, the methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of scientific institutions of

the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine used the number of papers and the h-index of the scientist

according to Scopus or WoS (NASU, 2017). In 2018, a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine

approved the procedure for conducting state certification of universities for their scientific activities, which also

uses indicators from Scopus or WoS (Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, 2018). Also, in 2018, the procedure for

forming the list of scientific professional publications of Ukraine was updated. In the new procedure, Ukrainian

journals indexed in the WoS Core Collection or Scopus were automatically included in this list without any

additional checks. In contrast, all other Ukrainian journals had to meet a number of formal requirements in order

to be included in this list (MESU, 2018). In 2018, the National Research Foundation of Ukraine was established

to conduct an open competitive selection of research projects. Bibliometric indicators of project authors are

taken into account in the process of evaluating grant applications submitted to the competitions of this

Foundation (NRFU, 2021). In 2019, there were updated requirements for obtaining an academic rank that

included indexing in the WoS Core Collection and Scopus databases (MESU, 2019a). In addition, the order of

4http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?C21COM=F&I21DBN=UJRN&P21DBN=UJRN

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AnalysisofpublicationsbyauthorsofUkrainianinstitutesinScopus-delistedtitlesSerhiiNazarovetsserhii.nazarovets@gmail.comhttp://orcid.org/0000-0002-5067-4498AbstractInUkraine,Scopusdataareusedtoevaluateacademics.ExistingshortcomingsintheUkrainianevaluationsystemallowthemtopublishintitlesthathavebeendel...

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