Академические рейтинги RePEc: вопросы построения и роль российских участников

Rapidly increasing interest of Russian academic community in bibliometric systems makes it more and more important for researchers to understand properly their advantages and drawbacks. In this study we explore capabilities of popular international electronic library of research materials in economics RePEc and issues of its rankings’ construction. We also analyze positions of Russian authors, institutions, journals and working paper series in various international and regional RePEc rankings during a period since 2010. Ways of improving rankings of Russian authors and series in RePEc are reported. We then discuss major instances of manipulation of bibliometric indicators, and give suggestions on eliminating distorting influence of some of them on rankings. Our analysis shows that RePEc, which earlier covered only a small part of Russian authors, who published in foreign journals, now embraces all segments of Russian economists’ community. Having unique functional capabilities, RePEc system is likely to become the leading integrator of information on economic research in Russia in the nearest future. This, in turn, would allow giving objective estimates of the role of the Russian economic science at the international level.