Editorial policy in promoting scientific periodicals (on the example of the Gyroscopy and Navigation journal)

Abstract

The paper describes the editors’ experience of development and promotion of a scientific and technical journal Gyroscopy and Navigation intended for scientists and specialists in the art, and published in the Russian and English versions. The effectiveness of various tools for increasing the citation of the journal is analyzed, and the examples of their practical use are given. The features of interaction with the authors and readership of both the Russian and English-language versions of the journal, i.e., specialists  in navigation and motion control of various moving objects are shown. Work with the Russian-speaking audience of the journal is based on direct contacts with researchers through online seminars, which facilitates the formation of a community of scientists loyal to the publication and interested in the journal development. At present, one of the main goals of the journal is to increase the level of its global reputation and influence. This is solved by sending regular information letters about the publication of new issues   of the journal with a brief description of published materials to particular addressees. As a result of the measures taken, the number of downloads of full texts of articles in the English version of the journal, as well as their citation, has increased significantly (2.5 times), which, in turn, has considerably increased the rating of the journal in the Scopus database. For example, the CiteScore index increased from 1.7 to 2.6 between 2019 and 2021. In this paper, it is shown that the difficulties in promoting the Russian-language version of the journal are due to the small audience of Russian-speaking specialists in this subject area, and due to the specific procedure of journal ratings calculation in the Russian Science Citation Index.