Government screening mandatory for Russian research to be eligible for publishing

Academic freedom has become a hot topic of discussion among Russian scientists as they are unsure of the future of science and research in Russia. This discontent stems from the recent amendment in law by the Russian government according to which research manuscripts have to undergo a screening by the Federal Security Service (FSB) before they are submitted to journals and conferences.

Accordingly, a biology institute at Russia’s biggest university — the prestigious Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) – has instructed its scientists to get an approval from FSB prior to submission to any journal, creating a stir among academicians. The university has a First Department, which is closely associated with FSB and checks the research output that is to be published. Such a department, reportedly, exists in all Russian universities and research institutes. Echoing the general sentiment of Russian researchers, Mikhail Gelfand, a bioinformatician at MSU, says, “This is a return to Soviet times when in order to send a paper to an international journal, we had to get a permission specifying that the result is not new and important and hence may be published abroad.”

The Russian government has been exercising extreme caution regarding any research that it considers to be of military or industrial significance. Hence, it passed a law that forbade direct publishing of papers that dealt with building weapons. However, the Russian researchers are not sure whether the restrictions will remain limited to nuclear and chemical research. Some researchers have also reported being forced to translate their work from English to Russian so that it could be examined better.

The academicians in Russia are unhappy with this situation as stifling academic freedom does not bode well for science. Many have complained to their universities about this. Fyodor Kondrashov, a Russian biologist at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, Spain, explains, “The problem is that it appears that all scientific output is being treated as potentially classified. This creates an unhealthy research climate with some scientists preferring not to share information.”

Amid the backlash from academicians, the Russian science ministry has attempted to clarify its stance by stating that the government does not intend to constrain the publication of basic research. However, the opinion of the researchers in the country differs on this. They believe that the new rule is a step back in the Russian government’s aim to internationalize Russian science and hope to fight against the new law.