The purpose of this study is to assess the extent to which the new methodology of calculating the Science Index integral index for scientific journals influences the change in the position of Russian socio-humanities journals indexed in the Web of Science and/or Scopus international databases, relative to past results and trends. These journals are chosen as the object of analysis due to the fact that the Science Index calculation is now performed according to the new methodology with normalization according to the RSCI core. The authors focus on the positioning of socio-humanitarian journals within the national publishing competition, taking into account theoretically possible and actual changes in scientometric indicators in dynamics.

The study is based on the data of the analysis of publication activity of more than 130 Russian journals presented on the elibrary.ru platform from 2012–2021 before and after the change in the methodology of Science Index integral index calculation and subsequent recalculation. In the course of the study, the journals were ranked according to both the current 2021 indicators before and after the change in calculation methodology, and the retrospective indicators predicted using three time-series forecasting methods (ARIMA, nnetar and ETS) before and after the change in calculation methodology. The results of this study form an idea of the “attention demanding” impact of the implementation of the new Science Index calculation methodology, which significantly limits the number of journals considered for citation calculation, on the positions of individual publications and scientific fields and changes in the balance of the Russian scientific world as a whole.

At present, Russia is undergoing a transformation of approaches to the evaluation of both scientific activity in general and scientific journals. Over the past year, there have been significant changes in the role and importance of Russian journals in promoting national scientific knowledge, and, consequently, in approaches to their evaluation: the classification of journals included in the list of peer-reviewed scientific journals in which the main scientific results of dissertations for the degree of candidate of science, for the degree of doctor of science have to be published, (hereinafter referred to as the Higher Attestation Commission – HAC list), the development of an information resource – the “White List”. What approaches to the evaluation of scientific activity exist now in Russia and in the world? Is it necessary to seriously change something in the approaches to the evaluation of scientific activity that are being formed today, or is it sufficient just to change the sources of information, leaving the previously used principles as the basis? Can journals affiliated with private universities now be an effective tool for promoting scientific results? Within the study it was analyzed how different modern systems for evaluating scientific activity, the basis of which are journals – Science Index, the list of the Higher Attestation Commission, the “whitelist” of scientific journals – correlate with each other. Also scientific journals including those affiliated with private universities, were evaluated by comparing different groups of journals (journals with the calculated Science Index; journals of the first, second, third categories of the HAC list, Russian journals included in the Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus and Russian Science Citation Index, etc.) based on scientometric indicators. An insignificant interconnection between the considered systems for evaluating scientific activity currently functioning in Russia, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the indicated groups of journals, including those affiliated with private universities, their position in these systems for evaluating scientific publications, is revealed.

The results of work on the optimization of processes in the editorial office of a scientific journal (reviewing, working out the text of articles by the authors according to the comments of reviewers, literary editing, layout, coordination with the authors) are presented. During the work, non-production losses were analyzed and reduced.

The aim of the project was to optimally use the available resources to reduce time costs in the production of the scientific journal.

The task of the project was to analyze the sequence, time and distribution law of the editorial and publishing processes of the scientific journal, and on their basis to develop recommendations for eliminating losses and implement their activities of the editorial staff of the scientific journal.

As a result of the project: several times reduced losses when reviewing manuscripts; the average time for reviewing articles is maintained with a significant increase in the flow of incoming articles over a short period of time; the average time of delay in the release of magazines has been reduced. In the course of the work, it was revealed that lean production methods (lean methods) are also applicable to complex formalized processes that, at their core, clearly do not create added value and do not deal with physical production, and process optimization significantly affects customer satisfaction. The results of the Gantt diagram before and after of lean productions had been presented.

The article processing time is currently one of the main characteristics that authors take into account when choosing a journal. In a competitive environment, journals, especially those with low rankings, need to process articles quickly to be attractive to authors. Most charge-free journals are significantly slower in terms of speed than journals with article processing charges (APC), and this is not only due to the fact that some journals with APC publish articles without peer reviewing and editing, but also because paid journals with peer reviewing and editing employ specialists who deal exclusively with the journal. Many domestic journals cannot afford to hire such free-from-other duties specialists, so the articles are processed by employees of the founding organization, who are also involved in scientific and educational work, which is why editorial processes are uneven. Also, article publication time is increased by volume restrictions related to the obligations of subscription publications and publication of the journal strictly by issues (especially if journal publishes issues every two months, quarterly, or less often). This paper compares the article processing time in four biology journals with different financial models from four countries. As expected, the article processing time in journals with APC was expectedly shorter than in charge-free ones. There is a noticeably long wait for paper publication after its acceptance in the journal, which publishes a printed version and releases articles not as they are ready but only as part of the finished issue. The article discusses possible ways to reduce processing time in charge-free journals. However, such a reduction should be adequate; editorial processes should not be expedited at the expense of the quality of editing and peer review.

The International Committee of Medical Journals Editors recommends that the data obtained be quantified and presented with appropriate indicators of measurement errors. There is a widespread belief among professional statisticians that it is necessary to present precise p-values in publications without correlating them with any threshold (critical) values. The coincidence intervals are extremely informative. For continuous random variables, not only for the sample mean, but also for other indicators: median, standard deviation, asymmetry, kurtosis and coefficient of variation. For discrete random variables, not only for frequency, but also for most epidemiological indicators – the odds ratio, positive and negative predictive values. Regression analysis should end with the construction of confidence interval for all coefficients, as well as the indication of predictive intervals on the graph. In the case of assessing the “strength of the influence of the factor” in the analysis of variance, a confidence interval for this indicator is also obligate. Specifying the exact p-value obtained during the study increases the probability of the published article being included in the meta-analysis. For most calculations of the above-mentioned indicators, the MS Office package, plug-ins to it or calculators located on freely available Internet resources are sufficient.

More and more academic journals are using social media these days. Social media activity requires planning, and the effectiveness of attracting the target audience depends on how well the content is selected. This paper discusses how to develop a content plan for a social networking scientific journal. The basic concepts are disclosed: content, content plan, target audience, tangible and intangible actions of the target audience. The results of a sociological survey of potential target audience of scientific journal are given. The majority of survey participants indicated that they would like to see the content of the social network of a scientific journal to be more diverse and attractive. To increase diversity and attractiveness it is proposed to divide the content in the social network of a scientific journal according to three objectives: to broadcast the values of the journal, to demonstrate the expertise of the editorial board, to sell the services of the journal. With the proposed content builder, scientific journal editors can start and maintain a successful social media campaign and effectively engage with the target audience.

The work of the CSAL with scientific agricultural journals is considered. The library has been a collector and caretaker of scientific agricultural journals, ensuring the completeness and safety of sets of scientific agricultural journals from the moment of its creation. It is emphasized that the information resources of the library that provide information support for scientific research can be used by scientific editors for reference purposes. The library’s stock having over 3 million items is a reliable source of various information. The content of the stock is disclosed in electronic information resources of its own generation: bibliographic, abstract and full-text, presented on the library’s website, which has long been a virtual double of the library. The library distributes information presented in scientific journals by publishing information about it in the bibliographic index, abstract database, in the Electronic Scientific Agricultural Library, by presenting the contents of journals in the electronic catalog of journals on its website. The results of monitoring the demand by users of scientific journals by subject and year of publication are presented. The work of the AGRIS center at the CSAL on integration of the results of scientific research published in agricultural journals into the world scientific information space is presented. The role of AGRIS in obtaining and exchanging scientific specialized information is described. It is emphasized that this is the only free international database on agriculture and food that provides abstract and full-text information, and the volume of full-text information is increasing every year.