Contests

18.08.2015 Science: indicators of growth

The considerable international level can be traced both in the comprehensive nature of the investigations and their significance for the development of a particular field of knowledge.

Adil Ibraev , President for the National Scientific Technical Centre

"The reforms will make the national economy advanced, knowledge-based," - said the Head of State at the inauguration ceremony of assumption of office the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. And, of course, a huge role in the implementation of institutional reforms is given to science. It is a world-class scientific achievements define a progressive march of the economy.

In the media from time to time there is information that the publication of Kazakh scientists in foreign information sources not of a high quality. I believe that there is a kind of inertia of thinking: we underestimate the intellectual and research capacity. It's not be based on stereotypes, but exclusively on facts, we can make a real picture, related with publications in foreign rating journals. Our scientists have a real, undoubted achievements that are not ashamed to show the world.

Why is it important for us? The high activity of scientists, provided by a wide access of our researches to rating foreign publications – one of condition of effective integration of Kazakhstani science to the world scientific community and increasing of level our investigations. An actual scientific information is concentrated in the resources such acknowledged providers, like ThomsonReuters, Elsevier, Springer. Today, our researchers are well aware of how to work on a global level, where it is better to publish scientific papers. Access to them of domestic scientific community is defined by President Nursultan Nazarbayev as one of the priorities of Kazakhstan's scientific community still at the first forum of scientists in December 2011.
Now "electronic portfolio" of the national subscription of RK includes information resources Web of Science of Thomson Reuters (2011-2015), Science Direct and Scopus of Elsevier (2012-2014), and Springer Link company Springer (from early 2015). About 300 Kazakh universities and research institutes now have the opportunity to free access to these resources.
Naturally, the question arises: what is the efficiency of these expensive electronic information resources? Is it possible to calculate the return on investment, because the subscription is worth a lot of money to be paid from the state budget?
Let us turn to the special indicators of evaluation. The first is a statistics of addressing of Kazakhstani subscribers to accessible foreign abstracts and full-text databases, reflecting the frequency of the use of resources. We have it growing and growing very fast. During the period of national subscriptions, this indicator has increased in Web of Science Core Collection in 2.9 times, Scopus in 3,6 times. There are among scientific organizations especially active users - Nazarbayev University, Kazakh National University after Al-Farabi and others. There are a clearly visible link between the number of visits of domestic researchers available information resources and their own publication activity.
The second indicator is a citation of scientific works of our authors, which recently has been the focus of scientists and science administrators. Citation is practically the only "visible" trace of scientific communication and mechanism of the birth of new knowledge. Currently, there are serious scientific works in the asset of our country that cause great interest of the world scientific community.


For example, 12 Kazakhstani publications are included in 1% highly cited papers for 2005-2014. In the terminology of Essential Science Indicators, of analytical instrument company Thomson Reuters, highly cited is considered a publication that is included into 1% the most cited in the world of works, published in the same year and in the same area of science.
Highly cited publications (highly cited papers) is a relatively small group of the most popular scientific publications, which often is the result of international cooperation authors from the whole world. In some extent such publications is an indicator of the quality of the scientific system. We appreciate the very availability of the articles of the Kazakhstan scientists in this one percent, which indicates that we are in the scientific mainstream. Our scientists received wide recognition in 5 of the 22 areas of knowledge: it is physics, chemistry, medicine, agricultural science and zoology.
In physics, astronomy and astrophysics is a half of Kazakhstani highly cited papers and a significant portion of the total number of publications of our scientists in leading scientific journals in the world. Among the seven highly cited works on physics four were prepaid by Professor of the Eurasian National University named L.Gumilev Ratbay Myrzakulov in a collaboration with other national and foreign scientists.In general, the array of Kazakhstan works for 2005-2014 in the information resources of Thomson Reuters Ratbay Myrzakulov is the leader in the number of publications. At the same time of his109 works 95, cited in the papers of other scholars.
And such his articles like Accelerating universe from F (T) gravity, Nearly Starobinsky inflation from modified gravity, Attractor solutions in f (T) cosmology, Reconstruction of f (T) gravity: Rip cosmology, finite-time future singularities, and thermodynamics, steel, it can be said , scientific masterpieces. Basic foundations of the Universe: the structure and dynamics of gravitating systems in the rapidly expanding Universe, cosmology, dark energy on the basis of the modified and generalized theories of gravity, scalar and fermion fields are considered in them.
All these articles were published in highly-ranking journals: European Physical Journal C, and Physical Review D, with quartile in the field of physics Q1. Quartile is determined by the impact factor, reflecting the scientific weight of the journal. As a result, each journal ranking falls into one of four quartiles from Q1 (highest) to Q4 (the lowest).
There is also an article Dark energy cosmology: the equivalent description via different theoretical models and cosmography tests, published in the journal Astrophysics and Space Science (with Q2 quartile in category "Astronomy and Astrophysics") in 1% of the most cited articles Kazakhstani authors. We are talking about such a complex subject as the use of gravity to create a realistic model for describing observed history of the expansion of the Universe. The publication was prepared by scientists from Japan, Italy, Spain, Russia. Our country is represented by a visiting professor of the Eurasian National University named Gumilev, one of the leading theoretical physicists of our time, by Sergei Odintsov, by the way, comes from Kazakhstan.
Since the end of 1950-th in Kazakhstan actively are investigated the interaction of accelerated particles in earth conditions . These works are being conducted by scientists of Institute of Physics and Technology, which collected data on 300 million of the facts of such interactions. In recalculation of spending, such as the construction and operation, built for similar studies of the electron-proton collider HERA at the German Research Center of DESY these data cost already a lot of money. The significance of obtained results is recognized by the world scientific community, and for citation of publications in prestigious physics journals the Institute team of physicists has a leading position among other national scientific institutions.
The same problems are considere in the article Combined measurement and QCD analysis of the inclusive e (+ /; ;-) p scattering cross sections at HERA, published in the journal Journal of High Energy Physics by Ernst Boos, Bolat Zhautykov, Nikolai Pokrovski, Aset Barakbaev in collaboration with scientists from 111 organizations in more than 20 countries of the world..
The work of Baurzhan Chektybaev, Alija Sadvakasova and Anuar Sadykov and their foreign partners from 34 countries is finishing the list Kazakhstan highly cited papers in physics. These Kazakhstani scientists work at the Institute of Atomic Energy of the National Nuclear Center of Kazakhstan (Kurchatov), and engaged in research of processes, occurring in irradiated beryllium. Their article Overview of the JET results with the ITER-like wall is dedicated to the choice of structural materials, capable of withstanding the thermal and neutron load for operation and modes of plasma failure in the thermo- nuclear fusion. The results of these researches, are given in the article, published in the journal Nuclear Fusion (quartile in the category of "nuclear physics" - Q1).
Our chemists are also well- known in the scientific world. Here the focus of practical technology: batteries for stationary and portable equipment, the system of power supply from renewable sources, engines for vehicles with zero-emission (electric and hybrid electric vehicles). For example, scientists of Nazarbayev University Zhumabai Bakenov and Asia Ermuhambetova held in conjunction with Canadian scientists work for creating new composite cathodes for accumulator battery. The results of their research are reflected in Article Ternary sulfur /; polyacrylonitrile /; Mg0.6Ni0.4O composite cathodes for high performance lithium /; sulfur batteries, published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A (Q4). The article is cited well, hence, the results are demanded.
Another example from the field of chemistry is an article Fluorescent Chemosensor for Detection and Quantitation of Carbon Dioxide Gas, prepared by scientists of the Eurasian National University named L.Gumilev Irina Irgibaeva and Dinara Birimzhanova together with researchers from China and the United States. The group dealt with the detection of carbon dioxide as a component, affecting the Earth's climate. Researchers proposed a method for detecting and measuring its CO2 content in the gas mixture by means of a fluorescent chemical sensor. The work was published in Journal of the American Chemical Society (quartile in the category "chemistry" - Q1).
High achievements in medicine are associated with the fight against cancer. As you know, they –are one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Improving of the efficiency of health systems, the availability of medical and social care, the reduction of social stratification and the vulnerability of certain social groups, the introduction of the safety requirements of physical and social environment and the protection of the population from the effects that threaten their health, - topical issues in the prevention of these diseases and lower mortality rates cancer.
Kazakh doctors actively work in the field of oncology.The work Challenges to effective cancer control in China, India, and Russia scientists from the Cancer Center of Astana and Almaty Dauren Adilbayev, Dilara Kaidarova is dedicated to problems of effective fight cancer in China, India, and Russia .
The work has been prepared in collaboration with international researchers from 51 organizations and published in the journal Lancet Oncology (quartile in the category "Oncology" - Q1
Biotechnology in crop production, grain production is the theme for our country's more than relevant. Our scientists are Minura Esimbekova and Aigul Abugaliyeva from of Kazakh Scientific Research Institute of Agriculture and plant science, as well as Saule Abugaliyeva and Yerlan Turuspekov from the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology took part in the international megaproject, associated with decoding the genome of wheat. Article A high-density genetic map of hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) from the cross Chinese Spring X SQ1 and its use to compare QTLs for grain yield across a range of environments was published in the ranking journal Theoretical and Applied Genetics (quartile in the category " crop "- Q1
And finally, zoology. For modern science is characterized by the integration and synthesis of scientific disciplines. These processes facilitate the work of scientists who have an impact on the very structure of the scientific community. Not without reason in our laboratories are increasingly found overseas scientists working in close touch with Kazakh colleagues.So, one of the recognized publications in this field was prepared Charles P. Gilman - American scientist, invited for joint research to the Nazarbayev University. The object of his study is rapidly gaining popularity in a translational neuroscience and behavior research model organism Danio rerio. The results, published in the article Towards a Comprehensive Catalog of Zebrafish Behavior 1.0 and Beyond, provide important information about the nervous system, physiological biomarkers and genetic foundation of normal and pathological brain functions. The work is presented in the journal Zebrafish (quartile in the category "Zoology" - Q1).
Thus, even such cursory review of Kazakhstan's scientific publications gives a very positive picture of the national science, which for a number of positions demonstrates a considerable international level . It should be noted, that the state now creates sufficient opportunities for the implementation of research capacity by providing including access to the world's leading providers of scientific information, taking care of subscriptions to them. Therefore, it is entitled to expect from the scientific community fruitful work, the growth of the publication activity, and as a result - of concrete results in the form of world level technologies.

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