ACADEMIC AND SCIENTOMETRIC RATINGS IN THE PROCESS OF SCIENCE AND EDUCATION GLOBALIZATION: SOCIO-POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS

The authors analyze some actual socio-political implications of the contemporary process of the broad recognition and expansion of global academic and scientometric ratings, as well as their impact on the state policy in the scientific and educational fields in the Russian Federation. The authors introduce the concept "charts power" as an important component of "soft power" of nation-states and international institutions for the most popular global academic and scientometric ratings can be used as an economic and foreign policy weapon. The article considers the leading academic ratings (Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities, Higher Education Index and QS World University Ranking) and the key scietometric ratings (Web of Science and Scopus). The authors believe that the charts power of other countries represents a real and potential threat for the national security of the Russian Federation, and provide some recommendations to mitigate the challenges, for instance, to create and promote (in due course internationally) a comparative index of trust to the international ratings including academic ones.