Scientometric Evaluation of Science-Centric Orientation of the National Legislation

Abstract

Introduction. The ability to build a science-intensive economy in Ukraine depends on the implementation of strategic approaches to the formation and implementation of a unified government science and technology policy. One of the main conditions for the implementation of effective government policy is to amend, in terms of quality and quantity, the applicable laws and regulations with documents of scholarly research orientation.
Problem Statement. Actual task is to assess the scientse-centric orientation of legislative acts as a quantitative criterion of «knowledge intensity» of the national legislation.
Purpose. To obtain scientometric evaluation of science-centric orientation of the national legislative acts. 
Materials and Methods. The main methods of research are as follows: the scientometric (slang) method for the analysis of texts of legal acts and the statistical methods for structuring and comparative analysis of legislative acts as statistical units. 
Results. A survey of the statistical base of legislative acts of the supreme government bodies in 1992—2018 has revealed inconsistency in the managerial decisions of the top government authorities. In addition, there have been established periodic, stable statistical relationships between the intensity of scientific law-making and the expenditure on scholarly research and R&D activities. The original scientometric approaches to assessing the scientific orientation of the national legislation have been developed.
Conclusions. Within the period of independence, the main problems of public administration regarding science and technology sphere in Ukraine have been as follows: competition for executive powers between the Cabinet of Ministry and the Presidential Administration; the focus of the Cabinet of Ministers on the redistribution of expenditures on science; the absence of strategic (long-term) approaches to the formation and implementation of a single R&D policy at the government level. It is necessary to reform the system of legislation of Ukraine for the sake of its science-centric orientation, in particular, because of the urgent need to adapt it to the legislation of the European Union in the field of science, technology, and innovation.