Reflection of modern politics: current research agenda in leading Russian political science journals

The article deals with the issue of relevance of the political research topics in specialized scientific journals. The discourse of scientific articles is limited by time lags for conducting research and preparing, reviewing, and editing publications, manuscript portfolio queues and the release of thematic issues. However, the editorial offices of political science journals are also under pressure of the time relevance, research relevance, grant, and reader conjuncture. The subject of the analysis was the topics of articles of the first ten political science journals leading in the Science Index rating of Russian scientific publications. The study analyzed a total array of 787 articles published from January 2022 to May 2023. The markers of the research conjuncture were the extraordinary events of 2022 related to Russia's conduct of its Special military operation in Ukraine, the introduction of unprecedented sanctions by the countries of the «collective West» and the restructuring of the world order. The results of the study revealed a small proportion of articles on the designated topics in the aspect  of international relations, geopolitics, domestic politics and sanctions pressure.  The current topics of Special military operation and sanctions were touched upon to one degree or another in 53 articles (6.7%). The authors of the absolute majority of publications were representatives of the MGIMO Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, IMEMO RAS, the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, HSE and INION RAS, which confirm the status of leading research centers on political topics.  At the same time, a significant share of articles on the relevant topic was published with grant support. The substantial content of the issues of leading scientific journals is explained both by the long technological cycles of selecting articles and forming issues, and by the established editorial policy.

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