BISS continues the series of events to present the findings of the research project “Human Capital as a Source of Competitiveness and Modernization”.
On 26 September, BISS presented new materials of its human capital research. This time research was centered on the analysis of the status of Belarusian science and its human resources.
The first presentation by Andrei Laŭruchin (Ph.D., assistant professor at EHU) was titled “Human Capital. A Quantitative Analysis of the Human Resources of Belarusian Science”. The study built on statistics and was designed to identify trends in the staff composition of Belarusian science. “Belarusian science has grown older, has had gender reassignment (sic!) and is now concentrated in the Academy of Sciences” was the joke with which the author completed the presentation to recap the results of the multi-parameter quantitative analysis.
The second speaker at the presentation — Andrei Šuman (Ph.D., assistant professor, senior research associate at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences) — presented two texts: “Human Capital: a Quantitative Analysis of the Staff Composition of Belarusian Science” and “Human Capital: Problems of International Integration of Belarusian Science”. In his opinion, Belarusian science has a hierarchy instead of competition and loyalty instead of meritocracy, as appointments to executive positions are not based on any competition and are approved by superior agencies rather than the staff that will be managed. Therefore, conformism and obedience appear to be more important than initiative and innovation, which causes erosion of the quality of both science and education.
When it comes to the international integration of Belarusian science, the author believes that it is mostly based on the Russian language. Most of the academic journals issued in Belarus are published in Russian, while very few are issued in Belarusian. Furthermore, a journal is considered “academic” only if it is on the list of the State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles. Whether a publication is “academic” or not, even if its Impact Factor (IF) is considered very high throughout the world and the publication is deemed prestigious, depends entirely on the members of the expert boards of the State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles or experts (opponents) that the boards assign for the defense of theses.
That is where the catch is. The thing is that the lists of the State Commissions for Academic Degrees and Titles of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine comprise the names of journals that have no IFs, meaning that their publications are not considered “academic” elsewhere in the world.
Meanwhile, the recognition of the academic value of publications in IF indexed journals (considered academic everywhere in the world) depends on arbitrary decisions by Belarusian experts. This situation fails to promote the international integration of Belarusian science.
Building on the studies of the “Human Capital” cycle, BISS is looking to prepare direct proposals for the government in order to improve the scientific and innovative potential of Belarus.