Methodological aspects of assessing regional publication activity and citations: the case of the RF central federal District Universities

Abstract

The article focuses on calculations to assess contribution made by University publication activity and citations indicators to the regional integral indicator of publication activity and citations for Voronezh Region, Ivanovo Region, and Ryazan Region. It shows that relative indicators are more significant in calculations of this kind therefore regions with a large number of Universities have no advantage. The article offers a triangular matrix of ratios expressing how much one regional integral indicator of publication activity and citations exceeds the other, which was calculated for the RF Central Federal District regions. Ratios range up to 3.47. It is concluded that the offered triangular matrix of ratios can be useful for arbitrary rankings of items by values of some indicator.

Key words: publication activity, citations, regional integral indicator of publication activity and citations, RSCI, RF Central Federal District, a triangular matrix of ratios for arbitrary rankings.