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TERRA ECONOMICUS

Russian economic journals in the new paradigm of research evaluation


TERRA ECONOMICUS, Vol. 23, No 4

Citation: Tretyakova O.V. (2025). Russian economic journals in the new paradigm of research evaluation. Terra Economicus 23(4), 135–150 (in Russian). DOI: 10.18522/2073-6606-2025-23-4135-150


The paper addresses the formation of new institutional mechanisms for evaluating research performance in Russia, based on models that are independent of global index metrics and designed to encompass a wide range of national academic publications. The study analyzes more than 300 Russian economic journals included in the Unified State List of Scientific Publications. It describes the distribution of journals indexed in international databases and classified under various categories of the Higher Attestation Commission (VAK) List according to the levels of the Unified State List of Scientific Publications. The findings allow for an evaluation of the position of journals whose publications are recognized within the national research certification system in the new “White List” of scientific periodicals. The analysis demonstrates that, within the changed evaluation paradigm, internationally recognized journals maintain a high status while the significance of leading national journals increases. We conclude that the implementation of this model may help restore the balance between contributing to global science and safeguarding national interests. The study also identifies limitations hindering the integration of the new list into the national research performance evaluation system, primarily due to the inclusion of journals that fail to meet academic quality standards and publication ethics. A set of criteria for expert journal assessment is proposed, which could address these shortcomings. The conclusions are relevant to the discussion on selecting optimal evaluation criteria for academic journals and advancing the national system of scholarly periodicals in Russia.

Keywords: economic journals; research performance evaluation; quality indicators; White List of scientific journals; the Unified State List of Scientific Publications
JEL codes: A11, I23, I28


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Publisher: Southern Federal University
ISSN: 2073-6606