University Information System RUSSIA: Scientific and Social Challenge

by Tatyana Yudina * An appropriate information base is the main challenge for research and education in social and human sciences in Russia, especially in distant areas. Due to an information shortage, the general level of teaching and applied investigations is decreasing university professors are unable to recommend as obligatory for study recently published books and periodicals: funding for book purchases is poor. As the Ministry of Science of RF (the Russian Federation) recently reported, only 67 scientific journals are available for 10,000 investigators in Russia (408 in Great Britain, 186 in the USA). Official government documents and reports, state statistics are also not available for educators and investigators. Due to the lack of public domain state statistics, the new research methods based on processing of large sets of numerical data are not developed in Russia. In the current situation, Internet-based collective resource is not only the most rational but the only possible approach to arrange the information supply and build the research base for investigations and advanced education in Russia.