Place of Russian scientific journals on natural, exact, and technical sciences in the international rankings

There is a widespread opinion that Russian scientific journals (RSJ) struggle quite far behind foreign publications in terms of citation rates, despite the fact that scientometric indices and the qualitative content of journals are constantly changing. This article provides an analysis of the current scientometric indicators and position in international ranking of RSJ in natural, exact and technical sciences. It is noted that among RSJ there are dozens of highly ranked ones. The indicators of RSJ and translated journals (created as 
English-language versions of RSJ) differ. On average, the indices of translated journals are higher, but Q1 has more representatives of RSJ. The sample of RSJ is not as homogeneous as that of translated journals. Traditionally, highly cited Russian publications are works in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry and mining. The relationship between the indicators of publication activity of Russian authors and the quality of the RSJ is discussed. The model of creating journals within an organization to maintain its image is outdated and does not work well in modern conditions. It is emphasized that the establishing of new academic journals and the transformation of existing ones should be based on an analysis of demand from the scientific community and an assessment of the level of development of a specific area based on scientometric and other indicators, otherwise it will be extremely difficult for the journal to develop.

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