SCIENTOMETRICS AS AN INSTRUMENT OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN RUSSIAN SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION

Usually scientometric indicators for assessing the effectiveness of workers in the field of science and higher education are considered from the standpoint of their criticism, identifying the limits of applicability, the impact on the quality of professional activity of workers. However, like any tools for managing social work, indicators of its effectiveness also have important social consequences. On the one hand, the assessment of the work of researchers and teachers using the Hirsch index and the number of publications in the Scopus and Web of Science systems was closely related to a significant increase in the level of remuneration of these workers compared to the average wage levels in the Russian economy. But, on the other hand, there are opportunities for the formation of large differences in the levels of wages in science and education, and, hence, for the stratification of workers employed in these industries, the rich and the poor. This social stratification is the result of the inclusion of noncommercial activities in market relations.