Питання ефективної оцінки результатів наукової роботи українських учених викликає тривалі дискусії. Упровадження на законодавчому рівні застосування наукометричних показників для оцінки наукової роботи українських учених привело до поляризації цього дискурсу. За мету статті було поставлено дослідження обґрунтованості використання публікаційної активності вченого у виданнях, які індексуються в міжнародних наукометричних базах як оцінки результатів наукової роботи. Науковим базисом представленого дослідження стали роботи вітчизняних
та зарубіжних учених, а також дані платформ Scopus та Google Scholar. Аналіз наукових профілів українських учених у різних галузях науки показав, що через національну або регіональну спрямованість соціальних і гуманітарних наук спостерігається їх низька, порівняно з природничими науками, цитованість. Автори вважають, що не правильно оцінювати результати наукової роботи вчених лише на основі публікацій у виданнях, які індексуються в міжнародних наукометричних базах. Стаття показує, що державна наукова політика, яка оцінює кваліфікацію вчених лише шляхом публікації в наукометричних виданнях, ризикує втратити національний напрям досліджень. Подальші дослідження мають бути спрямовані на розробку адекватної оцінки наукової роботи українських учених, яка буде органічно враховувати галузь знань та значущість наукових розробок для міжнародної та вітчизняної наукової спільноти.
The general articulation of the issue and its connection with the important research and practice tasks. Nowadays the
massive flow of information and vast amount of scientific journals has led to the situation when scientists do not have
time to keep up with all the latest developments in the areas of their scientific interests. Clarivate, a company which
provides access to the Web of Science Core Collection, has estimated that a scientist manages to read just up to 200
articles a year on the subject of his/her research. Thus, there is a problem, both for scientific journals and for individual
scientists – to ensure the «visibility» of their achievements to the professional community. Limited access to scientific
papers for various reasons – language environment, the availability of a printed version solely, difficult site navigation, or
compulsory prepayment for the access to a resourse – all these facts significantly limit the «visibility» of a scientist, that
influences his/her recognition in the professional field and amount of citations. Although the problem is sensitive for all
international scientific community, our research is principally focused on the Ukrainian academic environment.
The analysis of the recent publications regarding the issues this article deals with, identification of parts of the
general problem that have not been previously addressed. The issues considering what tools and how methodologies
for evaluating results in the Ukrainian academic society are used, have been scrutinized in numerous publications of
Ukrainian scholars, including A. Mazaraki, N. Prytulska, S. Melnychenko, V. Kirvas, I. Sazonets, L. Kostenko, O. Halchevska
and others. The works of M. Sokolov, Yu. Hranivskiy, Yu. Sharabchiyev, D. Hicks, P.Wouters, L.Waltman and other foreign
researchers on application of the existing scientometric databases used by scientists in the world are also of great
interest. Whereas being vitaly topical for Ukrainian academic community, the issue is considered not sufficiently studied.
The purpose (the objective) of this article. The main purpose of the study is to find out how the evaluation of
scientific results, which is based on the publishing activity of a scientist, is made in Ukraine, and to formulate certain
recommendations regarding the development of the system of public evaluation for scientific achievements.
The key results and the background. The analysis of the Ukrainian research materials presented on international
platforms such as Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar has revealed the fact that the largest number of Ukrainian
scientists’ cited works can be observed in Physics, Mathematics, Life Sciences and Chemistry. Whereas the level of
citation of Ukrainian scholars that are engaged in Pedagogy, Social Sciences, Economics, Agricultural Sciences and
Humanities is dramatically low. The most probable reason for that is the lack of interest among international scientific
community in Ukrainian scientific research in these areas, perhaps, due to the fact that the majority of the researches
in the corresponding social sciences are basically aimed at Ukrainian realities.
The most probable reason for this situation is the fact that the majority of the researches in the corresponding social
sciences are basically focused on Ukrainian realities which is not the issue of a great interest among international
scientific community. It was also pointed out that the Ukrainian scientific community was concerned rather with the drastic and sudden
changes in the requirenments, than with the very fact to publish the results of its own researches on the Web of
Science and Scopus platforms. Accordingly, it was proposed to launch national scientometric platforms, following the
experience of China, India, Russia, Japan and Korea in this issue, and the results of a national scientometric platform
should be included in the licensing, accreditation and certification requirements. It should also be beard in mind
that if the assessment of scientific performance is based solely on the number of citations of a scientist, it can lead
to the «artificial winding» by using self-citation. To avoid such negative consequences the assessment of a scientists’
performance should combine their citation rate, training and certification, expert work, etc.
Conclusions and the prospects of the further research. When evaluating scientists’ activity results the priority
should be given to promoting the development of those scientific researches, which are in significant demand in
Ukrainian society, and the support for our scientists should be in particular focuse of the government. The increase of
Ukrainian science «visibility» on international level, may be achieved by stimulation at the state level the initiative of a
heightening in the number of registered domestic scientific publications on the Web of Science and Scopus platforms.
The evaluation of scientific work results, which is based only on the number of citations, or indicators of the number
of articles posted on the platforms of Web of Science and Scopus, may cause false understanding of the significance of
scientific developments and loss of innovation authenticity of the national science. To motivate scientists and scholars
and increase their efficiency, it is necessary to develop an adequate model for evaluating the results of their research
work, which should be based on a reasonable combination of different types of scientific activities: publication and
citation of scientific papers, training, expert work, etc. This may be a prospective issue for the further research.
