THE COVERAGE OF THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR IN INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

In the current presentation, we observe the trends in how and to what extent the aspects of the Russo-Ukrainian war have reached scientific circulation. What is the circle of authors dealing with the topic, has the different geographical location affected the focus of research, what fields of research and topics does it cover, and what is the scope of the impact of the war. 

Methodology: For the conduction of our analysis, we used in our study the Clarivate Web of Science for the period 2014–2023, using the following key words: Ukrainian war, Russian Ukrainian War, War in Ukraine, Russian Aggression, Russian Invasion, and Russo-Ukrainian War. In total we selected 3164 papers with 4516 authors from 117 countries. 

Next, the following data were identified: (1) Co-authorship geography; (2) Research areas; (3) Authors’ keywords. Based on the received data, we formed three smaller datasets: a) papers where at least one author was from Ukraine, b) papers where at least one author was from Russia, 3) papers written without Ukrainian and Russian authors. Based on these, we carried out a text analysis and content analysis where we tried to find differences and concurrences between data from different time periods and different authors.

Finding: Based on the articles published in the years 2014-2023, the difference between the two periods – before and after the outbreak of a full-scale war – can be clearly observed. The lion's share of published articles belong to the field of social sciences and humanities. 75.1% of the authors are from Europe. If we take a closer look at how European authors are divided, the activity of the countries bordering Ukraine (Poland, Moldova, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Hungary) comes to the fore. For example, about a quarter (24.42%) of the papers on refugees are written by them. At the same time, Ukrainian authors are particularly active on the topic of media (36.21% from European authors). While the topic seems to be mainly relevant for European authors, two areas are also of considerable interest to Asian authors. These are energy – 19.46% of authors and food – 18% of authors. Taking into account the circle of authors (from 117 countries), it must be recognized that the impact of the Russo-Ukrainian war is already global, and in one way or another, no country in the world remains unaffected.