Russian scientific organizations and universities have lost access to one of the world's largest databases of scientific articles Web of Science, which is managed by Clarivate . The termination of access was announced by the telegram channel Russian Research, the information about the shutdown was confirmed by the Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Khokhlov. In mid-March, Clarivate announced that it was ceasing all commercial activities in Russia in connection with the military actions of Russian troops in Ukraine.
Web of Science is a database of scientific articles and citations of scientific papers, it contains more than 170 million articles and almost two billion links. The database allows you to search for data in a variety of fields of knowledge, to conduct scientometric calculations. In particular, the impact factors of the logs are calculated according to the WoS data. The operator of the Russian subscription to WoS services, as well as access to other major databases and scientific journals, is The Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR).
At the end of March, a large group of the world's largest publishers of scientific journals, including ACS Publications, Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, IOP Publishing, Springer Nature, The Geological Society and a number of others announced that they were terminating commercial cooperation with Russian organizations in connection with Russia's military actions on the territory of Ukraine.
A source associated with the organization of the national subscription told N + 1 that access to WoS was indeed terminated. The contract for 2022 was not signed, but until recently access was maintained. At the same time, access to another large database of scientific information, the Scopus database, which is supported by Elsevier, remains, as well as to the journals of many other major publishers. According to the source, the operator is trying to find a way to preserve and restore access to scientific information in Russia. "Most of them (publishers) are interested in finding some way out," he said.
Earlier, the British Microbiology Society (Microbiology Society), which publishes five scientific journals, announced that it was stopping work with articles in the preparation of which Russian budget funding was used or with the participation of authors affiliated with organizations that publicly supported the fighting on the territory of Ukraine. We tell about what happens to scientific cooperation after the outbreak of hostilities in the article "Doors are closing" .
Ilya Ferapontov