Scientific performance at Russia's backbone universities

By the early 2018, within the higher education system of the Russian federation (over 500 state higher education institutions), three university clusters have been formed, namely: the federal state universities (FSU), national research universities (NRU), and RBUs, Russian backbone universities (higher education institutions) The scientific performance of 33 RBUs is analyzed based on the set of scientometric indicators (Hirsch index, publishing activity, citation, etc.) (as of the early 2018). The assessment is accomplished based on the number of the faculty staff of the universities and the data on publications and citation as presented in RSCI databases. Based on the study findings, the RBU rating register is compiled, the relevance leaders are revealed. The author emphasizes that the leaders make about one third of the whole number of RBUs while the FSU and NRU leaders make up to one half of their corresponding cluster. Comparative analysis of scientific performance maximum values for the three clusters is accomplished. The RBUs that need to energize research and publications and to increase scientometric indicators and scientific performance are specified.