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It is rather easy to identify the leading universities in a country, there are different established methods and indicators of excellence. Generally, it is more challenging to find 'the second best' universities which have the potential to become leaders, 'the firsts'. In Russia, such an attempt has been made. The program of 'Pillar Universities' was realized in 2016–2020, in two stages. This paper analyzes the initial stage of the project and its outcomes. We aim to investigate how the program affected the output of the universities from the bibliometric point of view. The results, obtained by bibliometric methods, are encouraging. There is an increase in publication output above the Russia's average growth. Multidisciplinarity, domestic and international collaboration also increase. Those universities which had no papers in the top journals started publishing their research there. The overall effect of the 'pillar project' is found to be positive. Bibliometrics is widely used for assessing higher education institutions and is free from local peculiarities. This allows using the observations of this study in a broader context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact a Russian amended law concerning state secrets is having on science publishing by Russian scientists. It states President Vladimir Putin used a decree in May 2015 expanding the scope of a law requiring scientists get permission from the Federal Security Service prior to publishing results which could have industrial or military applications. It reports Russian universities are requiring scientists seek approval to the publication of any findings without exception.

The literature on the consequences of academic inbreeding shows ambiguous results: some papers show that inbreeding positively influences research productivity measured by the quantity and quality of publications, while others demonstrate the opposite effect. There are contradictory results both in the studies of different countries and within countries. This variety of results makes it impossible to transfer the findings from one academic system to another, and in Russia this problem has been under-explored. This paper focuses on the relationship between inbreeding and publication activity among Russian faculty. The research was conducted using data from the ‘Monitoring of Educational Markets and Organizations’ survey. The results show that there is no significant effect of academic inbreeding on publication productivity: no substantial and robust differences in publication activity between inbreds and non-inbreds have been found. The paper finishes with a discussion of possible explanations inherent in the Russian academic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

US universities are leading the way in technology commercialization, while universities in Russia lag far behind. This paper discusses the best American practices, as well as the main issues of technology commercialization at the US universities. As an example, we consider the experience of the University of Maryland, College Park. In the next section, we turn to technology commercialization in Russia, where it struggles for several reasons. In this paper, we propose that Russia can improve its technology commercialization by studying the example of the leading US entrepreneurial universities and implementing proper procedures. And the important overarching point is that Russian universities need to improve their collaboration with industry, and they need to develop new standards of administrative, research, and business activity that will promote innovation and entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic culture constitutes a new form of social adjustment in the digital era. Our study aims to reveal socio-cultural differentiation in the social group of Russian students whose e-culture is being shaped. Moscow students became our test group. To achieve the research aim we analyzed the concept of "e-culture" focusing on its theoretical and methodological interpretations. The paper provides an overview of current approaches to understanding electronic culture, namely competence- and activity-based approaches, axiological and institutional ones. Cultural studies of classical sociology served as theoretical and methodological basis for our applied research. Sociological approach enables to reveal the position of e-culture in modern society and detect its differentiating action on everyday practices and value system of distinct social groups. Thus, we suggest that we should extend our applied sociological study of students' e-culture by using a significant indicator, i.e. reflective-axiological attitude towards electronic technologies. We surveyed students of Russian universities and can now conclude that students from different test groups shape their e-culture at their own pace. Reflective-axiological attitude to ICT exerts a significant impact on e-culture formation; due to operational thinking technical students shape their critical reflective attitudes faster than non-technical ones. Most young adults today are common users, which suggests low demand for ICT in educational and professional areas where young people are actively involved. Youth socialization employs traditional forms of information culture, for example, book culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is focused on the dynamics of publication activity of medical universities in Russian Federation over the period of 1996–2019. Based on the number of publications indexed in Scopus database, 28 institutions that have made significant contribution were selected for analysis. Overall, Russian medical universities have demonstrated rapid growth of publication activity over the recent years. Several typical growth patterns were identified, that are shared by the majority of institutions. These patterns were found to be independent of funding and number of staff, or geographic location, and most likely reflect the impact of individual institutional policy in the field of scientific research. Additionally, we investigated the structure of total scholarly output of each institution in terms of scientific fields, frequency of international collaborations, and publication language, all of which have demonstrated significant variability. The dynamics of citation was also analyzed. While medical universities in Russian Federation make advances in terms of publication activity, the citation profile is yet to improve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the contributions of Professor Vasilii Mikhailovich Babich, leader of the Saint Petersburg School on the Mathematical Theory of the Diffraction and Propagation of waves in Russia, in line with the celebration of his 70th birthday. Basis of the theory of wave propagation on ray theory; Career background; Research on parabolic equations and Gaussian beams.

The author reflects on the scientific legacy of Russia, focusing on the how the Russian literature can stimulate new line of research by making it accessible to the international scientific community. It discusses topics including the 40th scientific assembly of the Committee on Space Research held at the Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow, university founder Mikhail Lomonosov, and a paper by Aggarwal and co-authors on groundwater discharge for degassing of radiogenic 4He .

The paper describes realization of a university information storage and retrieval system using Semantic Web technology. A portal is designed on the base of the Research Institute platform provided by the Russian Academy of Sciences. The subject domain ontology developed by the author, the system architecture, its resources and services are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from a planned centralist economy to a market economy over the last decade of the 20th century has presented Russian universities with many profound challenges. These challenges require universities to review and consider their organisational culture and deserve careful study. This paper describes the changes that have taken place at Tomsk Polytechnic University – one of oldest, largest and leading Russian universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the achievements of Vadim Mikhailovich Ivanov, doctor of chemistry and professor at the Division of Analytical Chemistry of Moscow State University in Russia, in the observance of his 70th birthday on July 16, 2006. Books written by Ivanov include the "Handbook of the Analytical Chemistry of Rare Elements." His research interests include the theory of action and applications of organic analytical reagents. Professor Ivanov's papers have received prizes from the Mendeleev Russian Chemical Society.

The article focuses on souring relations between Russia and Western countries and how Russian President Vladimir Putin's isolationism and anti-Western rhetoric may negatively impact Russian science. It states Russian research institutes and universities have started to instruct scientists to gain permission from the Federal Security Services prior to submitting papers or giving talks at scientific conferences. It mentions concerns of foreign-funded foundations they could be placed on a list of undesirable organizations.

Students learning a new language are aided by the use of a voice assistant when practicing speech, as it allows them to intensify their independent studies and master the elementary level of a foreign language. Moreover, the didactic potential of the Russian voice assistant "Alice" has hardly been studied in the context of teaching a foreign language at the university level. The purpose of this study is to test the effectiveness of educational interactions between students who are mastering a beginner level of Russian as a foreign language at university with the aid of the voice assistant "Alice". This study involved foreign students of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. The observation method allowed us to determine five educational functions of "Alice" while studying a foreign language and five scenarios of educational interaction students had with "her" in the process of their independent study. The flipped classroom model was selected to implement the proposed scenarios. The effectiveness of these educational interactions is confirmed by the results of the exam, which tested whether students meet the requirements for a beginner level of proficiency in Russian as a foreign language. After the exam, foreign students left positive feedback about working with "Alice". The results of the study indicate the didactic potential of the Russian voice assistant for those studying Russian at a university as an international student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a cross-institutional survey on PhD students' supervision at Russian universities. It is aimed at answering three questions concerning (1) styles of PhD supervision and their prevalence, (2) the relation between supervision style and PhD students' satisfaction with their supervisor, and (3) the relation between supervision style and PhD students' expected time-to-degree. We propose the empirically driven categorization of six supervision styles: superhero, hands-off supervisor, research practice mediator, dialogue partner, mentor, and research advisor. The most problematic category, characterized by providing no help for PhD students, was named "hands-off supervisors." For this category PhD students reported the lowest level of satisfaction, and the highest expected time-to degree. Nonetheless, the large share of PhD students who are satisfied with hands-off supervisors may evidence a presence of a disengagement compact between PhD students and supervisors in Russian universities. Two categories of supervisors characterized by the highest level of PhD students' satisfaction and shortest expected time-to-degree were named "superheroes" and "mentors." These supervisors are reported to perform managerial and expert functions, which emphasizes the critical importance of these functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to explore the incentive factors that serve to instigate university engagement in the third-mission agenda based on evidence drawn from the Russian system of higher education. We pay special attention to how the split of natural and externally induced drivers of the third mission has changed from the Soviet era and up until the immediate modernity. Our analysis has shown that the balance of these two types of incentives never remained flat over the course of history as the Russian university system encountered and had to address different challenges and imperatives at various points in time. We have also found that, while federal initiatives have been adopted by the Russian state that have created a distinctive cohort of universities entrusted with comprehensively contributing to the socio-economic and innovative potential of their host localities as a top-priority task, the third-mission agenda is by no means reduced solely to this very group of institutions, as there are many other universities that are not directly expected to focus on the third mission, but which still favor pursuing proactive and fruitful collaborations with regional stakeholders as arguably representing one of the crucial factors in long-term university sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the achievements of Boris Vladimirovich L'vov, head of the Division of Analytical Chemistry at the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University in Russia, in the observance of his 75th birthday on July 9, 2006. He is considered the father of electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. Awards received by Professor L'vov include the Talanta Gold Medal in 1974 and the Premium of James Waters Symposium in 1991.

The article profiles Yurii Markovich Dedkov, professor and head of the Division of General and Inorganic Chemistry of Moscow State Regional University in Russia. Dedkov began his scientific activity as a student at the Moscow State Academy of Chemical Technology. He delivered his first scientific report to a scientific conference of undergraduate and graduate students in 1956. He has made a significant contribution to the theory of the development of organic reagents for spectrophotometry.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Orientations to Happiness Scale (OHS) in a sample of Turkish university students and to compare the factorial structures derived from Turkish and Russian samples. The OHS, Satisfaction with Life Scale, General Life Satisfaction Scale and UCLA Loneliness Scale (version 3) were administered to 1,007 volunteer university students from two countries. The validity and reliability findings generally supported the multifactorial structure of the OHS in both samples. All of the components of the OHS significantly predicted life satisfaction (SWL) in the Turkish sample. In the Russian sample, only meaning significantly contributed to SWL. Therefore, the Turkish version of the OHS effectively assesses Turkish individuals' orientations to happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is proposed to define efficiency as the productivity, which means creation of the necessary and useful products of due quality in the necessary and sufficient amount, at the optimal result/cost ratio. Criteria proposed by the ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation for the estimation of the efficiency of universities are analyzed, as well as the methodological basis of the Thomson Reuters university ranking. It is noted that the efficiency of not only universities, but also the ministry can be estimated only when infrastructural and financial conditions for the efficient work of the university staff are provided and the state goals in the sphere of education are formulated. The ministry should determine the state demand in the sphere of specialist training and provide universities with everything necessary for that, while the universities should duly teach and train those specialists to be. A conclusion is made that national priorities in the field of education and science should be shifted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on mathematics concerning number of limit cycles of upper bounds in generalized Liénard equations of odd type. It mentions that odd type intend the nonaccumulation of limit cycles to infinity which expresses a natural generalization of geometric difference between Liénard equations of even and odd degrees. It notes that Ilyashenko and Panov have obtained the explicit bound on the number of limit cycles in the Liénard equations of even and odd degrees. It acknowledges that the study is backed up by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, program called "Leading Scientific Schools," and program "Universities of Russia."

The article focuses on the study in the State University in Kuban, Russia which shows mathematical solutions of integral factorization method in integral equations for anisotropic media. According to the author, the university has developed the mathematical formula which is eventually known as Wiener-Hopf equation to complete the studies of boundary value problems. Information regarding mathematical equations such as Fourier transformation parameters is also discussed.

We replicate the strategy-method experiment by Fischbacher et al. (Econ. Lett. 71:397–404, ) developed to measure attitudes towards cooperation in a one-shot public goods game. We collected data from 160 students at four different universities across urban and rural Russia. Using the classification proposed by Fischbacher et al. () we find that the distribution of types is very similar across the four locations. The share of conditional cooperators in our Russian subject pools is comparable to the one found by Fischbacher et al. in a Swiss subject pool. However, the distribution of the other types differs from the one found in Switzerland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the analytical chemistry in the context of the general situation in Russian Science. Researchers of the Nizhni Novgorod University and the Institute of High-Purity Substances of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a method of impurity preconcentration by microdrop extraction. Researchers of the Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences have proposed methods for the quantitative X-ray fluorescence analysis.

This article focuses on the history of the A.N. Kosygen Moscow State Textile University in Moscow, Russia.In 1919, the Spinning and Weaving School merged with the Soldatenko Vocational School and was transformed into the First Moscow Textile Technical School. In 1920, the Technical School was changed into the Moscow Practical Textile Institute, which became the Moscow Textile Institute in 1923. The Institute's staff had the difficult task of developing organizational and educational-methodological operations for creation of an industrial textile educational institution of higher education. The Institute was converted into a textile educational center in the course of the group's goal-oriented work.

Highlights the seminar on nonlinear dynamics and control problems at Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia. Description of the behavior of phase trajectories of system; Mathematical description of the class of dynamical systems with shock interaction; Reduction of the problem of constructing the desired function observer for the original system of constructing a functional observer for a system.

This article profiles phytophysiologist Vladimir Ivanovich P'yankov, who passed away on February 1, 2002. Vladimir Ivanovich P'yankov was born on March 31, 1954, in the town of Pervoural'sk, Sverdlovsk oblast, Russia to the family of a worker. In 1971, he graduated from secondary school in Pervoural'sk. In 1976, P'yankov graduated from the Faculty of Biology, Ural State University, with a first-class honors degree and became a post-graduate student at the Chair of Plant Physiology headed by Professor Mokronosov. His whole life was closely associated with this chair where he paved his way from the assistant lecturer up to Professor and Head of the Chair.

The article offers information on the Institute for Design Problems in Microelectronics, Russian Academy of Sciences (IPPM RAS) in Moscow, Russia. The institute which is considered a part of the Department of Nanotechnology and Information Technology (ONIT RAS) has eight documentators, 20 graduate engineers as well as 47 researchers. Some of the areas being studied by the group include system design automation in nano and micro electronics as well as high performance computing systems.

The article focuses on the life and works of Igor Kirillovich Marshakov, Doctor of Science in Chemistry. Marshakov is a member of the International Higher Education Academy of Sciences and a professor of the Faculty of Physical Chemistry at Voronezh State University in Russia. His studies and research focus on physical chemistry and corrosion problems, both fundamental and applied.

The article profiles Valerii Nikolaevich Maistrenko, who is to celebrate his 60th birthday on September 8, 2007. He was born in the settlement of Novikovka in Bashkortostan, Russia. He graduated from the Department of Chemistry at Bashkir State University in 1970. He is a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences and honored scientist of the Republic of Bashkortostan. He is also a professor and a doctor of chemistry, and director of the Research Institute for Life Safety in Ufa.

The article profiles Vyacheslav Isaakovich Vershinin, professor and head of the Division of Analytical Chemistry of Omsk State University in Russia. Vershinin is a leading specialist in organic analysis, mathematical and computational methods of analysis, and the methodology of teaching analytical chemistry. He graduated from the Chemistry Department of Dnepropetrovsk State University. Vershinin's scientific interests formed under the influence of academician K. B. Yatsimirskii.

Profiles Dmitri&icaron; Yur'evich Pushcharovski&icaron;, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Career and personal background; Contributions to the establishment of special courses for students at the university; Expertise in delivering lectures.

The article presents information on the 10th International Conference of Students and Postgraduate Students on Fundamental Sciences called Lomonosov 2003. At almost every faculty of Moscow University, a corresponding scientific section works at the conference; the section consists of subsections corresponding to the main scientific lines of the faculty. The fraction of participants from other countries has increased constantly. The participants of the conference not only present their scientific results and exchange opinions but also learn how to make reports properly.