Lesson 27. List of Peer-Reviewed Academic Sources (VAK List)
Higher Attestation Commission (ВАК, VAK) of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science oversees awarding of advanced academic degrees.
The List of VAK Sources changed several times which resulted in reviewing the whole list and appearance of two documents:
1. The List of Peer-Reviewed Academic Sources proper in which to publish the main results of dissertations (by 24.03.2020).
2. The List with Background Information on National Sources indexed in international abstract databases and citation platforms (by 30.03.2020).
Applicants, doctoral students, and post-graduates preparing a dissertation in VAK Dissertation Councils have to monitor the relevance of the List since there should be the following number of publications made before Dissertation Defense:
— for the degree of Doctor of art studies, culturology, sociology, economics, liberal arts and humanities no less than 15, in other categories — no less than 10;— for the degree of Candidate of art studies, culturology, sociology, economics, liberal arts and humanities no less than 3, in other categories — no less than 2.
It should be noted that patents (certificates) for inventions, utility models, industrial designs, new varieties, computer programs, databases, and layout designs of integrated circuits duly registered are treated as peer-reviewed publications containing the basic results of a research for an academic degree.
Applicants, doctoral students, and post-graduates preparing a dissertation in Dissertation Councils of other organizations should study the requirements for the number of publications as well as for the sources to be published in. For example, in UrFU an applicant must obligatory have publications in the sources indexed in international abstract databases (the information is cited by the link: https://dissovet.urfu.ru/fileadmin/user_upload/site_15871/Polozhenie_o_prisuzhdenii_uchenykh_stepenei_UrFU__1478276_v1_.pdf) (See fig. 1).
Figure 1. The Requirements to Publications in UrFU Dissertation Councils
The list of peer-reviewed sources allows identifying top scientific journals in different Russia’s categories of specialties as well as searching scholarly publications.