Changing of Global Knowledge Networks in the World System Reconfiguration: The Case of Russian and BRICS+ Research with International Co-Authorship

Global networks of knowledge diffusion are both among the major products of globalization and its strongest factors, contributing significantly to its further development. However, in the course of the ongoing reconfiguration of the World System, which is likely to intensify in the coming decades, global knowledge networks, as well as international cooperation in science and research in general, are bound to experience profound structural changes. The paper examines Russia's current position in these networks and the recent dynamic changes in this position and in the structure of Russian researchers' international collaborations by focusing on the networks of international research co-authorship. At the first glance, the ongoing re-structuring of the system of Russian academic links with foreign countries could be attributed to the impact of sanctions, but this viewpoint fails to take into account the dynamics of the global academic co-authorship network and Russia's position within it over the past decades, which has been defined by the post-Soviet legacy and the abovementioned reconfiguration of the World System. Increasing investment in the domestic R&D, improving research infrastructure, and enhancing the quality of research can all make the World-System semi-peripheral and peripheral countries increasingly attractive R&D partners for each other. This factor is likely to contribute to the growth of the share of research collaborations between the countries outside the World-System core.