Экономические науки/ 16.Макроэкономика

Prof. Kiseleva V. V., Evstigneeva L. M.

National Research University Higher School of Economics

Russia’s place in global science

Socio-economic development of countries, their economic and political position in the world arena are determined largely by scientific, technological and innovative development. Many of the developing countries tend to for a lack of innovative capacity through implementation of effective scientific policy, often based on derived practical experience from abroad. Forms of knowledge transfer in modern conditions are diversifying, but the most powerful stimulus to the contacts development in the research is the country inclusion into the world of science on the basis of codified knowledge (in the form of publications and patents). That might act as a stimulus for new contacts; expand cooperation, including foreign conferences, training, implementation of joint projects, and finally, the migration process.

Geographical and cultural proximity influences international scientific collaboration. The widespread use of English and information and communication technologies has helped to extend the scope of international research collaboration. While Europe increases scientific collaboration in the European research area, the rest of the world reaches out to emerging economies. Co-inventions are an indicator of formal Research and Development (R&D) cooperation and knowledge exchange among inventors located in different countries. International co-inventorship is affected by countries' skills endowment and conditions of relevance. International co-invention typically involves multinational corporations with units in several countries and joint research ventures between firms and institutions of various types (e.g. universities, public research organisations). While co invention with the BRIICS continues to increase, it remains limited as only about 1.7% of European patents and around 2.5% of US patents are со-invented with partners in BRIICS economies.

International scientific publications co-authorship is calculated as the share of articles featuring authors joined with foreign institutions in total articles produced by domestic institutions. Co inventions evaluate as the share of patent applications with at least one co-inventor located abroad in total patents invented domestically. Luxemburg shows outstanding results in both directions; more than 70% of publications involve co authorship with abroad institutions. For Russia, the level of scientific co authorship is slightly more than international patent co invention, which just exceeds 20%. Virtually all countries fall below the 45^o line (figure 1); this indicates that they have more international scientific co-authorships than patent co-inventions [4].

Figure 1. International collaboration in science and innovation, 2011

Source: OECD Patent Data Base, 2013

The scientific personnel mobility determined by many factors, including social, institutional, and even demographic. In modern conditions, science has increasingly focused on the society needs. It is directly included in the production process and becomes a driver of economic development. It follows that the possibility of exchange of knowledge do not depend on the physical distance between countries, but from the "economic" distance, which is primarily determined by the mutual interest for some kind of knowledge, i.e. the knowledge supply and demand.

In turn, the global scientific community demand on science is determined by government policy. Most developed countries are now completing structural shift to scientific disciplines, aimed at improving human well-being, including health-related science, ecology, and information technology. At the same time, the current state of the world's scientific potential characterized by a steady path dependency. Therefore, large military sector research, inherited from the cold war, has been preserved and continue to be restoring in the leading countries. In table 1 figures are calculated based on articles citations data in the leading scientific journals of the world in 22 scientific fields. They characterize variations in citation in the directions of the average for all directions for 10 years from 2004 to 2014. In the left column research areas are listed which are cited more often than the average article in all directions, in the right direction, areas which are cited less frequently. This table demonsrates the long-term trend of scientific production demand in the world. Quoting "hot" articles characterizes the demand on the part of the works, which corresponds to 1% of "new" scientific achievements that attracts the maximum attention of scientists. Countries’ place in the scientific contacts reflected by quoting and their contribution to the dynamics of scientific research could be illustrated by the figure 2.

Figure 2. Cites/Paper and Cites/Hot Paper by Countries – 2013

Source: InCites « Essential Science Indicator» Thomson Reuter

First, most highly cited articles often appear in countries that do not belong to recognised leaders. In the number of links to hot articles, Gambia is in the same row with Switzerland, and Germany and Canada do with Honduras. Moreover, the demand on hot articles from developing countries is significantly higher than from science-leader countries. The article focuses on Russian scientific potential, but it should be noted that the reasons for getting articles in the number of hot so diverse that this issue requires special analysis. This diversity leads to the risk of mechanical borrowing of best practices in the transformation of the organization of science for countries coming to the knowledge economy [3, p. 10]. Russia is not consider to be in the number of science leaders, primarily because of the fact that institutional characteristics of scientific potential impede the mobility of its scientific staff [2, p. 1620-1630]. Furthermore, according to official statistics more than 80% of research activities are devoted to natural and technical Sciences, out of which more than 60% focuses on technical. Compared to this figure with the data in table 1, it is clear that the grate number of studies are held in those fields of science, the demand for which in the global science is falling. At the same time citation index of Russian scientists’ articles in the areas that are of interest to the global scientific community corresponds to the level of advanced countries (e.g. immunology – 9 links to the article, pharmacology – 6, neuroscience – 5) [1].

Consequently,traditionally the high level of research in Russia corresponds to the industries interest in which of the science world is reducing. Russian scientific journals with impact factor greater than 1 are devoted primarily to physical, chemical and mathematical Sciences. Third, high demand for Russian science is limited by a number of factors, due to traditions, organization, and institutional features of Russian science. However, according to Russian Federal Statistics Service, the only type of agreement by which the balance of foreign trade technology payments has a positive balance is scientific R&D. Thus, it still can be argued that the demand for Russian science is maintained at a high level.

Bibliography:

1. ISI Essential Science Indicators official website Available at: http://thomsonreuters.com/essential-science-indicators/

2. Klochikhin Е. Russia innovation policy: Stubborn hath-dependencies and new approaches. Research Policy41 (2012) 1620-1630

3. Kotsemir М., Meissner D. Conceptualizing the innovation process – trends and outlook basic research program working papers series: science, technology and innovation, 2013

4. OECD (2013) Data Base, Science indexes 2013