Abstract
Using a dataset of corresponding addresses in the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics (JETP) and JETP Letters (JETPL), which were the leading venues for Soviet physics, we perform a large-scale survey of the spatial geography of Soviet and post-Soviet physics during the period 1975–2015, capturing the changing roles of different republics and cities within the USSR, post-Soviet states, and countries that were never part of the Soviet Union. We also pay attention to the role of Russian-speaking emigrants. Such a detailed and data-driven geography, based on two leading cross-physics publications, serves as a novel addition to the fields of the history of physics and Soviet/post-Soviet science and geopolitics.
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Data availability
The dataset that was created for this paper is freely avaliable at Zenodo as stated in ref. [55] (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5503576).
References
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Survey works of a general nature address the regional distribution at best tangentially. Thus, the well-known monograph on scientific personnel—Aleksandr G. Allakhverdian, Dinamika Nauchnyh Kadrov v Sovetskoi I Rossijskoi Nauke: Sravnitelno-istoricheskoe Issledovanie (Moscow: Cogito-Center, 2014)—does not include a regional aspect at all, although it does include age, gender, and thematic aspects, as well as a special section on scientific emigration and diaspora. It seems that such identification of Soviet science with Russia is quite common in the review literature of a quantitative-statistical nature both in Russia—Leonid M. Gokhberg, ed., Otechestvennaia Nauka I Nauchnaia Politika v Kontse XX Veka. Tendentsii I Osovennosti Razvitiya (1985–1999) (Moscow: Moscow State University Press, 2011)—and worldwide—John R. Thomas and Ursula M. Kruse-Vaucienne, eds., Soviet Science and Technology: Domestic and Foreign Perspectives (Springfield: National Technical Information Service, 1978).
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For example, Physical Review B: Condensed Matter corresponds to the journal Physics of Solid State founded by Abram Ioffe in 1959, which is the largest physical journal of the USSR by the number of WoS-indexed papers. It is the only journal with the address metadata quality/availability comparable to JETP/JETPL, but we do not include it in our analysis because it is specialized, much less selective, and tightly controlled by a particular research institute (Ioffe PTI).
Dmitry Geltman, “'Stavka' I 'Tema' kak Sakralnye Ponyatia Otechestvennoy Nauchnoy Zhizni,” Troitsky Variant no. 334 (2021), 5.
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Given the current ambiguity on the appropriateness of any country grouping names, here we resort to the Soviet-era labels.
Detailed distribution of the number of publications by countries, republics, and cities for each year can be found at through the following link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5503576.
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Acknowledgements
The author expresses his gratitude to the editorial office of JETP, as well as to the team of the HSE project “Structure and Trajectories of Science in the Post-Soviet Space: Institutional Practices and Bibliometric Analysis,” to professors Karl Hall, Michael D. Gordin, and Irina Dezhina for discussions and valuable comments at the seminar at HSE University organized by Alexander Dmitriev, and to Vladimir Vizgin, Maria Aksentieva, and other members of the history of physics seminar at the RAS Institute for the History of Science and Technology. Anonymous reviewers’ comments and suggestions are much appreciated. This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation under Grant No. 20-18-00140.
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Ivan Sterligov is a researcher and advisor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University), Moscow. He specializes in quantitative science studies and research evaluation, focusing on the academic journals, international collaboration and diverging trends in the post-Soviet academia.
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Sterligov, I. Before and After the Fall: Geography of Soviet and Post-Soviet Physics Surveyed via Leading Journals. Phys. Perspect. 25, 41–75 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-023-00298-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-023-00298-y