Approaches to Selecting Citation Sources in Articles by Russian Media and Communication Researchers

Abstract—The lists of references in articles written by Russian media researchers published in 2017–2021 in journals indexed in Web of Science (2011 articles in total) were analyzed. The research reveals the existence of several source citation models used by Russian authors at different academic organizations. These models are hypothetical, and their combination describes the source selection models used by Russian media researchers. The differences detected in practices might indicate the absence of any standards within the community. That being said, the indicators of mutual and self-citation among representatives of leading academic organizations show that the community is closely interconnected and has a clear center of four organizations and a periphery of regional universities.