War Decade. Historical Publications of the NAS of Ukraine 2014-2023

Abstract

The purpose is to identify the trends of quantitative and thematic changes in the publications of the institutions of the NAS of Ukraine in the field of history and to try to provide some forecasts for the near future based on the document flow of academic book publications included in the “History” section of the annual annotated book catalogs of the NAS of Ukraine during the ten years of the Russo-Ukrainian war (2014—2023).

The research was conducted using the methods of bibliographic analysis, especially the quantitative analysis of primary documents, systematization and information analysis, scientific generalization, and content analysis of scientific documents; 1,121 publications were studied.

Main results. The distribution of publications is characterized by types (genres) and by years, the languages of the main text, the country and city of publication, the institutions that prepared each of the books, and by book series as well. The chronological change in the genre of publications is shown — there is an increase in the number of educational and popular scientific literature with a simultaneous decrease in the number of titles of scientific monographs next to a general reduction in the annual number of titles. The content analysis of the titles and abstracts of the books made it possible to identify cross-cutting themes present in all years and the change in the thematic direction of a significant part of the document flow in response to public requests for the study of wars in which Ukraine was involved, the study of the foundations of Ukrainian nation-building, reconstruction and reflection of events previously suppressed or misinterpreted during Soviet times. Prospects for further research. The obtained results can serve as a starting point for further scientometric studies of the publication activity of scientists of the NAS of Ukraine. Practical importance. The presented conclusions display the great potential of creating popular scientific and educational literature in the institutions of the NAS of Ukraine, the ability to provide answers to socially significant questions promptly, as well as the considerable ability to transform and transmit historical knowledge about the events of reconstructed ancient history and current history. Originality of research. The review of the document flow of the NAS of Ukraine book publications in the field of history during the war decade was accomplished for the first time.