journal’s international visibility: Findings from literature review and faculty survey

sw.tpk.rt@mail.ru ABSTRACT Russian universities are trying to promote their scientific journals in international citation bases and are making attempts to publish their journals in English. The aim of the study is to examine how can this strategy help to increase the international visibility of Russian tax research and tax journals. The literature review was conducted to investigate the role of scientific journal in faculty’s and university’s ranking. Non-random sampling survey was conducted with on-line questionnaire in September 2021 to examine Russian faculty and academics foreign language publications with connection to their foreign language skills. Based on the literature review we indicated three groups of ranking affecting factors: economic factors (author geographic affiliation, size of university or department, presence of strong business schools, academic training outside), co-authorship (international collaboration, number, gender and quality of co-authors) and individual characteristics (journal’s specialization and quality, faculty’s PHD-affiliation and language skills). We found that 95% of the survey participants have publications in foreign language. The significant relationship between the number of publications and the level of language proficiency exists only for participants who have more than 30 foreign language publications. The 89% of respondents who indicated that they never use a foreign language in their professional activities also have foreign language publications, and 15% of them have publications in journals Web of Science and Scopus (Q1 and Q2). Our findings indicated that the lack of language proficiency is not the main handicap for progression of the Russian research and journals visibility in international level. The main challenge is that we need to direct the research to an audience who might not at all be interested or knowledgeable about the national research context. Based on the obtained results, the recommendations were offered to potential contributors of articles in English and editorial


Introduction
There is a wide discussion about "Publish or Perish" principle in a whole and about publishing in prestige foreign journals in particular. Some consider publication incentive as a practice that will encourage the researchers; yet, there are others who hold a contradictory view. For example, F. Stilwell argues that implicit or long-term benefits do not easily motivate employees who usually expect a quick reward for the hard work they have done and the efforts they have expended. Publications are not taken very seriously by the academicians except for their self-vested interests. People do not care whether their research is useful to the community or not, but are blindly following the motto of 'publish or perish', and earning extra money [1]. Discussing the pressure to publish in English-language journals, the Fejes and Nylander emphasize that the researchers from non-Anglophone countries actively engage in a publication game that underscores their own subordination [2].
No general agreement was reached in sight how publication incentive can encourage the researchers in Russia. From one side, scientific community was charged with the task and "to increase the share of publications of Russian researchers in the total number of publications in the world scientific journals" 1 and to ensure "the presence of the Russian Federation among the best five countries performing scientific studies and developments in the spheres determined by the priorities of scientific and technological 1 Decree of the Russian President of May 7, 2012, no 2 . This year the Government of Russia approved "Priority 2030", the program of strategic academic leadership aimed at supporting universities. The share of publications in Web of Science and Scopus increase is one of the conditions for universities to participate in this program.
From the other side, there are many serious discrepancies between the official position and scientific community opinion. M.V. Kurbatova, S.N. Levin, K.S. Sablin revealed that imported instruments of scientific policy (grant funding system, scientometrics and academic excellence programs) are gradually transformed in accordance with the interests of the actors participating in the vertical administrative bargaining at political, governmental and departmental levels. The authors argue that in the conditions of contemporary Russia the accountability of scientists and scholars to society turns into accountability to the vertical of power [3].
The results of a sociological survey of the economiс scientific community conducted by A.Y. Rubinshtein, N.A. Burakov, O.A. Slavinskaya shows that more than 80% of respondents consider the publications in Web of Science or Scopus «very important» (51,9%) and «important» (29,0%). Authors explained this result by "not very natural orientation of leaders from science, replacing the real integration of domestic research into the world scientific process by publications in foreign journals, including the most outdated ones" [4].
Basing on the results of this survey A.Y. Rubinshtein, N.A. Burakov analyzed the dependence of incentive remuneration on the number of publications and their citations. The authors concluded that there was an "administrative failure" of the paternalistic state, which is evidence of a "failure of society", when infantile institutions of civil society were unable to provide a democratic procedure 2 Decree of the Russian President of May 7, 2018, On National Goals and Strategic Objectives of the Russian Federation's Development for the Period until 2024. Available at: http://kremlin. ru/events/president/news/57425. of choosing the aims of domestic science development [5]. P. Minakir's assessment is not so radical. He's examination of the policy of «increasing the visibility» of Russian economic science has shown that in a relatively short time, both extensive and intensive factors of increasing the publication mass are practically exhausted. At the same time, the qualitative parameters of publication activity turn out to be of low variability depending on the dynamics of the publications themselves [6].
But as in most areas of life, prestige ratings in academia have their uses, and it is unlikely that any scholar would argue that labels are meaningless. Invariably, and not surprisingly, the position of universities and departments in the various league tables usually relies upon the faculty's publications. And publication-based criteria remain, despite imperfections, the widest measure of the quality of research output. Under this circumstances Russian universities are trying to promote their scientific journals in international citation bases and are making attempts to publish their journals in English.
The question is -how can this strategy help to increase "the visibility" of Russian science? This issue is especially true for social science and economic science. Russian economics thought was separated from international economic thought for ages because of ideological constraints. So, it is not surprising that the share of Russian publications in Economics in the global flow, % (2010-2017) was 1,41%. To place this in perspective of other science: the share of Russian publications in Geology was 6,12%, in Astronomy & Astrophysics 7,46, Applied Mathematics -3,9% 3 .
To answer this question, we explore the examples of different ranking: journal, economist, economic department. We sought to answer the following questions: 1) What is the role of scientific journal in scientists and university promotion? 2) What are the impediments to publishing articles by Russian authors in English? 3) What measures lead to increase ISSN 2412-8872 "the visibility" of our journal in international level? These questions are particularly important in the view of recent approval of Journal of Tax Reform application to the Scopus database.
The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. In the scope of this paper, literature review will be presented to demonstrate the role of scientific journal in scientists and university promotion. In the writings on the interconnectedness of different disciplines, authors confront literatures of widely varying sizes. For example, the top five psychology journals offered roughly twice the number of citations as the top five finance journals, which in turn offered three times as many citations as the top five political science journals. For this reason, studies of interdisciplinary linkages tend to scale the number of citations received by each group of journals by the total number of citations offered by journals in the citing group. So, we concentrated our analysis on the results of economic literature research. To answer the second question, a survey of researchers from various universities was conducted to evaluate their readiness and motivation to publish in English.

The role of scientific journal in faculty and university promotion:
Literature review The use of rankings in higher education is an attractive but also controversial subject. Although the history of rankings is not long, it began in 1983 in the US, they have become an important feature in the decision -and policymaking in higher education. It must be noted that a metho-dology which is widely accepted and sa-tisfies public interest, students, and academics has not yet been developed.
The interconnection between faculty and university ranking and scientific journal ranking is shown in Figure 1.
University or department ranking methodology is based on employing various performance of faculty research output. This methodology uses the citations weighted journal ranking, to assess the output of individual researchers and then according to their affiliation compute the department or university rankings. A detailed presentation of most of the important methods and the indicators employed is presented by Giannias and Sfakianaki [6]. Methodology can be summarized into four steps: The first step is measurement of the value and prestige of scholarly journals. There are several possible causes of different rankings of journals: the data source, the time frame, and the index. First, data on the citations received by journals are collected using definite database focusing only on the selected category (e.g. "economics"). There are many arguments for or against each of the databases: Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, EconLit. Second, self-citations (and all the citations of articles published earlier than the selected horizon period are excluded from the dataset in order to correct for biases arising from self-citations and differences in age between journals, respectively. Third, adjustments for the size and the impact of the journals are conducted. In the commonly used ranking methodology, journal's influence increases in proportion to the total number of citations it receives during a specified period of time. Thus, a citing journal will have a greater effect on the rankings if it provides a larger number of citations. The result of the first step is the journal list where every journal has its weight. Thus, the iterative measurement of the value and prestige of scholarly journals results in more accurate rankings ( Table 1).
The second step is measurement of research performance of each article. For example, Fabel, Hein and Hofmeister suggest to assign a score of the article as a score pw/n to each publication in the sample, where p denotes the number of pages, w is the journal weight and n the number of authors [7].
The third step is the definition of an individual research productivity. A researcher's output is defined as the sum of the scores of all articles written for definite period or over his or her career. Individual research productivity is defined as output divided by number of years.
Final step is measurement of department or university productivity as average of the productivities of its individual members.
The growing number and frequency of studies on university, department, and economist rankings indicate that this area is becoming increasingly popular among economists. Table 2 provides a comparative summary of the most representative studies in the field focusing on rankings of economics departments and rankings of economics journals. Table 1 Journal ranking: challenges and ways to overcome Subject of ranking Challenge in correct ranking Way to overcome The journal in which the publication is included No correction for the age of a journal The citations are weighted equally (the contribution of a citation from a top journal is considered the same as a citation from a lower ranked journal) To control for journal age by selecting a period for citations The journals which are themselves cited heavily, or that are cited in other journals that are cited heavily, rank higher than journals that draw fewer citations or that tend to be cited in less influential journals The number of publications and/or the pages per publication How the pages are counted since journals have different page sizes?
The conversion of all journal pages to equivalent units using the AER size of page as a standard to unify size The number of citations The self-citations are included Larger journals that tend to publish more articles also attract more citations  UK data on citations to articles published 25 years ago -a highly imperfect match between the quality of the journal and the lifetime cites of the individual articles -it is better to write the best article in an issue of a medium-quality journal than all four of the worst-4 articles in an issue of an elite journal Continuation of Database of French academic scholars (2015) -the number and the quality of a researcher's co-authors reflect the productivity of that researcher -being a woman has no impact on the probability of never collaborating with other economists but it decreases both the quality and the quantity of co-authors.

M. Eisend, S. Schmidt [27]
Citations to articles scholars with German affiliations -the augmentation of complementary knowledge resources (i.e., when researchers lack language skills and foreign market knowledge) positively influences the performance of a collaboration-based internationalization strategy (i.e., collaborations with international researchers) -the collaboration-based strategy also improves performance for less experienced researchers, but this advantage diminishes with increasing research experience Based on the analysis of the literature we can systematize the factors affecting the ranking by subjects (universities, faculty and journals) ( Table 3).
We can indicate first group of factors as general economic factors. The main finding is that there is the relationship between author geographic affiliation and citation impact. As discussed in the bibliometric literature, Merton's Matthew Effect sheds light on the differential citation counts based on the authors' subregion. The rich get richer while the poor get poorer, creating a widening gap between those who have more and those who have less. The positive correlation between pro-ductivity and size of university or department may reflect either increasing returns in research production (conceivably due to more peer pressure) or the selection of more successful individuals into larger and potentially more prestigious departments. Research output is highly concentrated, this result reflects the division of labor that allows some individuals to specialize in research while others assume teaching and administrative duties.
Next factor is co-authorship. As we can conclude from Table 2 co-authorship is one of important determinants in economic journal, faculty and department ranking. The relationship exists not only • The number and the quality of a researcher's co-authors reflect the productivity of that researcher • Being a woman decreases both the quality and the quantity of co-authors • Average number of authors appears to increase with journal quality

Individual characteristics
• The department's research output tends to improve substantially when the incoming department Chair is himself or herself an outstanding scholar • The concentration of Ph.D.affiliations is much higher than the concentration of current affiliations • Augmentation of complementary knowledge resources (language skills and foreign market knowledge) positively influences the performance of a collaboration-based internationalization strategy • A significant difference in h-index between academics who report scientific activity on the departments' website and those who do not • Intellectual influence of an article published in several specialized journals is much higher than if it were published in the most prestigious general-interest journal • Highly imperfect match between the quality of the journal and the lifetime cites of the individual articles • The longer papers that use technical tools are more likely to make international citations Compiled by the author between the research efficiency of an individual and that of his co-authors but also between the university efficiency and international collaboration. International co-authorship enhances research quality and improves performance for less experienced researchers. International collaboration is accepted as a source, a copious source, to scientific productivity. It is an important driver of science dynamics around the world. These findings underscore the importance of accessing external knowledge networks in academia.
Third group reflects the determinants of individual characteristics of universities, faculty and journals on their value and importance. A significant result of the above analysis is that the augmentation of complementary knowledge positively influences the performance of a collaboration-based internationalization strategy and leads to increase economic journal, faculty and department ranking. The language skill is one of this complementary knowledge. In the next part we try to examine how the lack of language skills influence to scientific productivity.

The impediments to publishing articles by Russian authors in English:
the result of survey

Method
As noted in the previous part, complementary knowledge resources especially language skill positively influences the performance of a collaboration-based internationalization strategy and leads to increase economic journal, faculty and department ranking. To evaluate the readiness and motivation of researchers to publish in English we conducted a non-random sampling survey. Non-random sampling methods (which provide reliable representative sampling) was conducted to examine Russian faculty and academics foreign language publications with connection for their foreign language skills. As noted and emphasized in the relevant methodological research [32], non-random (in other words, improbable) sampling is a specific method of selecting units of observation and sampling. And in this case, the researcher is not able to predict with final accuracy the likelihood that the required respondent, precisely the one required for a given research case, will most likely end up in the space of the sample array. This circumstance makes it possible to use this method for our purpose.
Data was collected with on-line questionnaire in September 2021. The questioner covered three groups: participants of final competition "Leaders of Russia. Track Science", the audience of Journal of Tax Reform and faculty from Irkutsk universities. We used social networks Telegram and WhatsApp to send to each target group and participants a reference containing a URL link to a questionnaire mounted on Webanketa.com 4 . Potential participants received Questionnaire focused on their use of English for professional purpose. We gathered a total of 111 valid responses to Questionnaire (response rate is 39,6%). Demographic characteristics, including occupation and disciplinary grouping, are self-reported. Table 4 contain information on the breakdown of responses across demographic categories.
Our sample is close to general representation of faculty in such characteristics as gender, age, education and occupation. We do not affirm that our sample is representative enough to make general conclusions, but the study can generate some insights to be drawn upon in journal and university policy-making. It must be noted that the study is prone to sampling, coverage, non-response, and weighting and data adjustments.

Results
In the first question we asked participants to assess their current level of foreign language skill. Figure 2 shows the results of participants self-assessment. Among the entire group of respondents 42,34% have threshold and threshold advanced level. Only about 22% of scientists have level of professional proficiency (15,32%) and the level of proficiency perfectly (6,31%), while at about 36% have the beginner and elementary level (see Figu-re 2). Professional level is higher among the respondents with the high foreign language skills. Respondents who have Doctor of science degree form 42% from those who reports C1-C2 level.
It is foreign traineeship or working abroad, that is the most effective way of learning foreign language. This experience was noted by 2/3 of the respondents with C1-C2 level. But all respondents with C1-C2 level marked that they have trained additionally by themselves (see Figure 3).
The survey also asked about implementation a foreign language in participant's professional activities. Respondents could select more than one option or add their own version. Nearly all faculty with B and C level use foreign language to read professional literature. A smaller but far from insignificant set of faculty uses foreign language to communicate with colleagues (see Figure 4). We can see that near 1/3 of participants do not use foreign language in their professional activities.  The survey also asked about the quantity of foreign language publications. We found that the prevailing part of participants have from 1 to 4 publications in foreign language (see Figure 5). More than 1/3 of the respondents said that they have more than 10 and only 7% reported about more than 20 publications, and 8% about more than 30. A particularly small share of scientists (5%) haven't publications in foreign language at all.
In addition to examining how much publication faculty members have, we also investigated the character of publication. Respondents could select more than one option or add their own version. Two of the options listed were nearly universally used among respondents: conference proceedings -69,37% and in journals Web of Science and Scopus (not Q1 and Q2) -47,75%. As Figure 6 illustrates, publications in journals Web of Science and Scopus (Q1 and Q2) are in the third position (40,54%) and a roughly equal share of such type of publications as monograph, working papers and others (13%).
One could expect the level of foreign language proficiency to be a significant factor of publication quantity. If we consider this issue in connection with the level of foreign language proficiency, it becomes obvious that the significant relationship between the number of publications and the level of language proficiency exists only for regular publication in a foreign language (more than 30 articles). Most of the respondents who indicated that level have a C1 or C2 proficiency level. However, some A1 level respondents also have over 30 publications.
More revealing is the distribution respondents who indicated that they never use a foreign language in their professional activities by the number of their publications in a foreign language. Contrary to expectations, only 11% of this group do not have foreign language publications, 7% have from 5 to 9 publications, 18%from 10 to 19 publications and 64% from 1 to 4 publications. In this group, 15% of respondents have publications in journals Web of Science and Scopus (Q1 and Q2).  We can conclude from this data that the level of foreign language proficiency is of no particular importance for foreign language publications. Employer incentives for publications are much more important for respondents to have them.
The survey also asked about the incentives for foreign language publications. Respondents could select more than one option or add their own version (Figure 7).
More than half of the respondents answered that their employer uses financial encourage to stimulate the publication of scientific papers in a foreign language, 1/3 employers require such type of publications for the purpose of faculty promotion and tenure. Less than 20% of respondents said their employer organizes foreign language training. As Figure 7 illustrates, a roughly equal share of employers who stimulate publications threw authors support (translation and academic writings training). But near significant share of employers (near 28%) do not stimulate the publication of scientific papers in a foreign language.
The survey may indicate, for example, that the foreign language publications are necessary for university success at all major academic levels. Second, the results raise questions about the emphasis on the foreign language skill as the requirement for the scientific work and publication.
Much more in-depth work needs to be done before there is a complete understanding of the foreign language skills required. The results of this first questionnaire are indicative enough, however, there is the necessity for further research.

Discussion
The results of our study resonate with several studies carried out by Russian and foreign authors.  The results of the survey of 130 managers of master's programs, conducted in 2019 among representatives of the teaching staff of universities in 16 regions of the country (Lipetsk, Samara, Tyumen, Smolensk, Pskov, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk and others) support our conclusion that the level of foreign language proficiency is of no particular importance for foreign language publications. This survey showed that 7.7% of managers of master's programs who do not speak a foreign language have publications in foreign journals [33].
The results of scientific work should be assessed not only by their quantity, but also by their quality. Only high-quality scientific papers can provide the international visibility of Russian science. This quality is closely related to academic communication and collaboration, proficiency in a foreign language (primarily English). Jang C. compared academic communication and collaboration with the case of foreign direct investment (FDI) that enhances domestic technology in developing countries. First few years may be awkward to domestic workers, but they learn foreign technology quickly and can be independent in a few years. The consequences are expected to be similar in academics [16]. This can be proven by China's experience in active promotion to international citation databases. Yongyan Li and Guangwei Hu examined Chinese management academics and focused on their use of English for academic communication. They emphasized the benefits of raising the quality of research by engaging with the criterion of rigor, learning the ropes of English academic writing, and gaining access to theoretical developments and conclude that borrowing the standards of English academic writing (which is expected to embody the criterion of rigor of research) can have a positive impact on the presentation of research in the Chinese medium as well, apart from facilitating Chinese scholars' international publication effort [23].
In the light of the obtained results, I cannot but agree with the opinion of S. Barsukova, who believes that language barriers are far from the decisive factor in lifting the blockade from Russian social science. We fully support her opinion: the linguistic translation of Russian articles is absolutely incapable of changing anything. Translation is really necessary, but linguistic is the last thing. More relevant is a meaningful translation or text reprocessing [34]. The main challenge is that we need to direct the research to an audience who might not at all be interested or knowledgeable about the context under scrutiny.

Conclusion
What does it mean in the context of tax journal? It appears that we need to: -examine all of the 'hot' topics s in the tax journals, in order to establish which of them are possible, viable, practical, interesting, etc., and which are not; -develop interaction with other journals with similar specialization; -prefer citation of the articles published in specialized journals to other citation in the list of references; -welcome the opportunity to publish the articles with international collaboration; -inform the authors, that longer papers that use of technical tools are more likely to make international citations; -take measures for indexing the journal in EconLit, because it is necessary condition to boost citation in English -language economic literature.