The influence of geopolitics on research activity and international collaboration in science: the case of Russia

Abstract

We study the possible influences of the Russia-Ukraine War on Russia’s research productivity and international collaboration in science. For this purpose, we introduce and apply two recently developed indicators of relative intensity and balance in international collaboration. To see whether longitudinal trends have changed recently, we combine a long-term perspective based on annual updates since the year 2000 with a short-term perspective based on monthly updates since the beginning of 2022. The clearest change is that the productivity of Russian science, as measured within Web of Science, has dramatically decreased after several years of growth. There is also a clear decline in the degree of international collaboration in fields of research that heavily rely on large multinational infrastructures established through state agreements. In other fields, however, the degree of international collaboration is more stable. The general decline in Russian science seems to be more driven by internal factors than by loss of partnerships abroad.