Ukraine demands a new wave of scientific sanctions against Russiathis time focusing on academic publishers, Russian medical journals and companies that produce college league tables.
Russian Medical Journals: Boycott Includes Blocking Access To Research For Russian Citizens And Institutions
European governments, including Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, have already stopped research projects joint ventures with Russia in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.
The editorials largest in the world, which control the global flow and accreditation of scientific informationand compile the data of citations supporting university rankings. They have not taken any action yet, but are now discussing their next steps.
At the end of last week, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science, backed by its universities. issued a detailed list of investigative sanctions which they believe will ultimately help undermine Moscow’s war machine.
These include blocking access to published research online for citizens and institutions Russian. And prohibit Russian citizens from editing or revising in international magazines.
However, there journals who oppose the boycott.
The journals Russian doctors and scientists cite a well-established principle in scientific publishing, enshrined by the International Science Council and other organizations. From do not discriminate against authors based on their nationality or political opinions. That ideal was honored for decades during the Cold War, when magazine editors received articles from authors in the Soviet Union.
The editors believe that the practice preserves the scientific investigation free and transcends geopolitical disputes. The boycotts of scientific publications have been rare, and one of the best known, against german authorss after World War I, it was abandoned a few years later as a failure.
But as the Russian army unleashes a brutality not seen in Europe since World War II. Western institutions have begun to eliminate other types of research partnerships with Russia. Which raises questions about whether publishers’ neutrality will or should last.
“If we now wage wars with economic and soft power, doesn’t it follow that scientific institutions. Including journals, should they cut ties with Russian institutions and perhaps even with Russian scientists? asks Richard Smith, former editor of The BMJ in a comment on March 8. “I’m glad I’m not the editor anymore and I don’t have to decide.”
Caroline Sutton, executive director of the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM). A trade group says it knows of no editor who has decided to ban the content of the Russian researchers. “Some are having that conversation internally.” His group does not plan any collective decision. “The weight of this situation is not lost on anyone who has to contemplate this,” add. (Science doesn’t plan to boycott, says Holden Thorp, its editor-in-chief.)
Journal of Molecular Structure: the only journal that boycotts manuscripts from Russia
For the moment, the Journal of Molecular Structureproduced by publishing giant Elsevier, is the only journal to boycott manuscripts from Russia.
The policy was designed to target scientific articles of Russian institutions, says the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Rui Fausto, from the University of Coimbra. “The institutions of russian investigation they have the support of the Russian government and they support it,” he says. The ban does not apply to russian scientists in other countries, but to scientists of any nationality working for Russian institutions.
“The decision is a matter of conscience for the publishers, an expression of their solidarity with all those affected by the conflict. And no political judgment on the situation has influenced her, but only its humanitarian consequences”, adds Fausto.
The editors of Physical Review C, published by the American Physical Society, took a different approach. It focuses on nuclear physicsa discipline in which Russia publishes many articles. After Russia invaded Ukraine, two members of the 10-member editorial board of the magazine working in German national laboratories expressed concern. This, due to the suspension of the collaborations of investigation with Russiaa by their government meant that they could not review articles with Russian co-authorssays editor-in-chief, Chief Joseph Kapusta of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
The board agreed to allow those publishers to refrain from such newspapers, it says.
Even if many journals adopted a boycott, the effect on the overall number of scientific articles would still be small.
“I fully sympathize and empathize with the Ukrainians,” says Kapusta. But you also agree with APS’s policy against discrimination based on political views. And he doesn’t think the magazine’s articles will help Russia gain any technological advantage. “We don’t post anything classified,” she says. “It’s just basic science.”
Even if many Russian medical or scientific journals adopted a boycottthe effect on the overall number of scientific or medical articles would still be small. Russian authors contributed around 82,000 articles published in 2018, only around 3% of the global total and the second lowest among 15 large countries.
But in relative terms, their share had grown rapidly: during the previous decade, russian items had increased by 10% per year. More than in any other large country besides India, according to the US National Science Foundation. That rise partly reflects a 2012 move by the government of russia to reward those academics by the number of articles they publish.
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