CC BY
12CERTIFICATION OF PERSONNEL OF HIGHER QUALIFICATION IN THE SPECIALTY
10.01.10 - JOURNALISM
Larisa Feschenko,
Ph.D., associate professor, assistant professor of advertising
St. Petersburg State University (Institute «Higher School of Journalism and Mass Communications»)
АТТЕСТАЦИЯ КАДРОВ ВЫСШЕЙ КВАЛИФИКАЦИИ ПО СПЕЦИАЛЬНОСТИ 10.01.10 - ЖУРНАЛИСТИКА
Фещенко Лариса Георгиевна, кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры рекламы, Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, Институт «Высшая школа журналистики и массовых коммуникаций»
АННОТАЦИЯ
В статье дается анализ трех этапов формирования открытого информационного пространства в деятельности диссертационных советов и Высшей аттестационной комиссии Российской Федерации. Даны рекомендации по поиску полезной информации, связанной с защитой научных работ по журналистике: автор поделится своими впечатлениями о работе с сайтами вузов - теми их разделами, где размещается информация о диссертациях, дает анализ информации некоторых процедурных вопросов аттестации научных кадров.
ABSTRACT
The article describes the three stages of forming the open informational space in the work of dissertation councils and the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation. The recommendations on search of useful information related to the protection of scientific papers on Journalism are given: the author will share her impressions of working with the websites of the universities - the sections dedicated to the information of dissertations, provides an analysis of some procedural issues of scientific staff attestation.
Ключевые слова: диссертации по журналистике, автореферат диссертации, подготовка кадров высшей квалификации, информационное сопровождение защиты диссертации, информирование о работе диссертационных советов.
Keywords: thesis on journalism thesis abstract, preparation of highly qualified personnel, information support of the thesis defense, information on the work of disser-tation councils .
The work of dissertation councils that provide evaluation of highly qualified personnel and the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation (HAC), which oversees the activities of dissertation councils, over the past few years have not only changed, but changed dramatically. The main and most noticeable change is that a new informational environment is forming - for ten years, since 2006, the website of the Higher Attestation Commission provides abstracts of doctoral theses (currently the archive contents 13616 units of storage, including 45 theses in journalism, or 0 33% of the total). Then for a short time HAC page contained abstracts of PhD theses. Nowadays, almost for two years dissertation councils and HAC have been operating in the conditions of absolute transparency! These are the changes we want to highlight.
Using the opportunity, we would also love to express gratitude to the staff of the RSL Digital Library, for digitizing a vast array of abstracts, which makes the search for materials and work with them quick and convenient.
The first abstracts that became available to us were online versions of abstracts of doctoral theses posted on the HAC site starting from 16 June 2006 for the period of 6 years. The first thesis published, namely August 15, 2006, was the dissertation by Yuri R. Savelyev «The art of «historicism «in the state order of the second half of XIX - early XX century (as exemplified by «Byzantine» and Russian style)», presented to the defense to the Dissertation Council of St. Petersburg State University, but performed at the Department of Russian Art, St. Petersburg Repin State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Russian Academy of Arts [1].
The first out of the 45 doctoral theses in journalism was the dissertation by V. A. Yevdokimov «The role of the media in the politicization of social conflict», which was published at
the HAC page on April 15, 2007 [2]. However, basing on our information, we state that such data can not be considered entirely representative [3]. The only explanation to this is that it was hard to the system to get along with new technologies (we face the same at the other two stages of transition). For example, our council's (D 212.232.17) archive does not contain any information on the three doctoral dissertations: «Investigation as a method of journalism» by N. V. Berger , «Creative nature of comic (genre paradigm of modern journalism)» by A.N. Teplyashina, «Promo mediatext in political communication: discourse analysis» by K. V. Kiuru [4].
A little bit about the feather in our cap. Out of these 45 theses our university - St. Petersburg State University, and in fact the Faculty of Journalism and later the Institute - 7 times was the leading organization, and has impact is every fourth thesis, namely, 10 out of 47, was performed and presented to our board - let us pay attention to some of them, whose authors currently teach in our Institute: I. Blokhin, S. Balashov, MA Berezhnaya and SN Ilchenko.
But the University is rightly concerned by the fact that we hardly appreciate the expert work as an important resource. Since May 2011 at the St. Petersburg State University's website reviews prepared in St. Petersburg State University as the external reviewer, and reviews of scientific and pedagogical workers of St. Petersburg State University performing the role of official opponents have been posted. The search path is as follows: Home page of the official site of the University, the «Expert activity at St. Petersburg State University» left section vertical menu, then «Examination of qualification of scientific papers» and finally under «Comments leading organization on the dissertation», «reviews the official opponents in the thesis», «The findings of dissertations, performed at St. Petersburg State
University», «The findings on the admissibility of the detected amount of text matches between the text and the sources of the thesis, the authorship of which is established to review the manuscript as an original scientific dissertation (qualification) work».
For sure, among the 814 reviews by St. Petersburg State University as the external reviewer (September 8, 2015) 20 reviews prepared by our colleagues were lost, which is understandable - this resource creates and maintains the brand of the university. It is therefore reasonable to broadcast information about the expert activity of our colleagues using their own information resource as well - the official website of the Institute «Higher School of Journalism and Mass Communication», St. Petersburg State University, because a review is not only an honor, but also a serious scientific work. It is important that the listed documents have a great methodological value that enables to use them during the work preparation of master degree students and postgraduate students using the materials during practical classes in the aspect of stylistics or literary editing. It means that listed documents should be available through a more simple search than the one proposed at the main site.
In the «Comments of the official opponents» section (330 documents) we can also find the ones prepared by tutors of our institute.
Introduction to these web-pages on the site of St. Petersburg State University (1244 papers) itself is of interest. Thus, for example it is possible to examine the two recent doctoral dissertations - «Evolutionary mechanisms and stages of human language» by S.A. Burlak and «Experimental Analysis of Discourse: Theory and Practice» by O.V. Fedorova, an official opponent to which was T. Chernigovskaya and get acquainted with the review, and then to find in the electronic library of the RSL the abstracts and, if necessary, refer to the text of the theses; it is possible to learn out that S.L. Firsov opposed the dissertation research «The religious policy of the Soviet state in 1958-1964 and the reaction of the Russian Orthodox Church to the «Khrushchev» persecution» by Archpriest Alexei Marchenko, presented for the degree of doctor of church history; The doctoral theses «Literary texts in the intellectual space of contemporary culture» by V.A. Sulimova the PhD thesis «Professionalization of Internet journalism in the blogosphere» by E. N. Ivanova which close to us on the subject also seem to be interesting. The ones listed below are just the theses hard to ignore [5].
Again, our university long before the HAC has provided access through its webpage to the expert reports (reviews of the thesis) prepared by the university professors.
Returning to the main theme of our publication. The described time range is divided into three unequal periods: 2006-2012 - six years of getting used to new conditions, almost two years of transition (2012-2013), when in the open access online HAC was provided not only to postdoctoral or doctoral abstracts, (meanwhile abstracts only!) - and the new era that came in 2014. However, in relation to transitional 2012 - and 2014 - (also transitional) - the basic principles do not yet fully operate (we could not find on the HAC webpage 19 abstracts listed in the Digital Library of the RSL, but in any case the abstract it still available in one click).
We call without irony this time historical, as owing to extreme efforts, strict warnings and Council closing, the Higher Certifying Commission that gradually made the maximum possible amount of information about «thesis management» available, has become the main thesis searching engine. At the same time, since January 2014, the following data started to appear on the organization's webpage: the thesis' defense place, the abstract, reviews of official opponents and external reviewer organizations, the reviews of the thesis and abstract, the report on the acceptance of the thesis to the defense and Protocol on the defence of the thesis, later information about opponents and external reviewer was added, including, above mentioned in the abstract (degree, rank, position), the requisite information (mailing address, website, phone, email) and a list of publications opponent or academic staff leading organization confirming the involvement in the topic of the thesis. As everyone became accustomed to the new conditions of absolute openness and transparency of the work of dissertation councils, the dissertation councils or universities in which they are registered, became posting these defense transcripts, antiplagiarism check results, the organization's conclusions, the conclusion of the dissertation council, defense video records, the supervisor data and others on their own initiative.
It would seem that now all the information is available in a single click. Certainly not! The reference indicated in the announcement or the abstract can provide access to the text of the thesis, but do not display the page of the author of the theses, or can generally send to the site of the university, which is not always easy to understand. Anyone can check this, and we are going to share our impressions of working with the websites of universities - those of their sections, where the information about the thesis is displayed.
So, let us pay attention to the sites of universities and focus on their thesis webpages.
Only in case of 25 out of the 112 theses 2014-2015 HAC website provides the link to the whole set of documents on the dissertation. More links listed in abstracts, but not everywhere. The main question is: what are the skills required when working with these or missing data. That primarily refers to finding the right information and the difficulties that one needs to overcome. We will try to be impartial.
Let us refer to the website of SPSU. Using the familiar way: the main page, the left vertical menu, section «Science», the «Dissertation councils», we see the necessary title «Theses approved for the defense and defense information». You can then scroll through more than 40 pages, and each of them offers us the defense date, name of the applicant, and the degree of specialization. Relevant ones are placed at the end, so it is necessary to move in the opposite direction. And - most importantly - there is no indication of the dissertation topic, so if you search by the specialty code, you will have to open all results proposed. Theses posted by applicants, are «hidden» in the «candidates for a degree» section. In other words, it is possible to find something there only if you know exactly what you are looking for. The page itself, however, is organized in a smart way.
Our board (D 212.232.17) and has its own page (the address is presented in the author's abstract). For whatever it may be worth, the navigation is as follows: Institute «Higher School
of Journalism and Mass Communication» St. Petersburg State University - About the Institute - Dissertation Council (or Science - Dissertation Council). Here, everyone chooses for himself what he is interested in: bibliographies theses, including updated applications for theses described period, or regulations, information on the Board or on the passport of the specialty, archive theses or materials dissertations submitted to the defense in 2014 and 2015. In the context of this publication we are interested in the last two sections, which are the lists of authors and themes of theses with all documents required by the provision on the page and, in addition, author publications in leading peer-reviewed journals recommended by HAC of the Russian Federation, the list of author's publications on the topic of the thesis, the transcript of the last defense, conclusion of the council and the conclusion of the organization where the work was performed. At the beginning of September 2015 the counter showed more than four and a half million hits on the page of theses council, which means that the work is not in vain.
We would like to mention another friendly webpage - our partner, Moscow State University. The Abstract of the thesis submitted to the protection in the Council of the Faculty of Journalism, is not always accompanied by a reference, but otherwise imposes no difficulties: the vertical menu in the «scientific papers» section, the Dissertation Council button, at the bottom there is a reference to «Announcements of protection» by clicking on the which, we pass to the page of announcements (to this place you can also get from the vertical menu, bypassing section Dissertation Council), we see eight sections - «Defence of the thesis for the period of... » - from 2014 to 2007. At the bottom of the page the newest announcements are presented along with the links to the author's page. Let us note that there is an «Expert advice» section - where the theses not yet accepted to the defense are presented, that are at the initial stage of preparation of documents to the defense. From the text of the announcement, you can go to the page of the supervisor (scientific advisor) on the resource ISCISTI (Intelligent System of investigation of scientific and technical information). There are links to the author's page and the address of the announcement on the HAC page under the ad. The work is very comfortable!
Working with the webpage of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia the most important point is to get to the section «Dissertation Council of PFUR» and then the link to «dissertational councils». There are many transfers, but it is important that the People's Friendship University understands the significance of the title of the thesis, which makes up a basis of further search principle. Let us also note a convenient archive of defended theses.
Website of the Southern Federal University offers the following. «Science and Innovation» option in the left vertical menu, then the section «State Scientific Certification», which includes the section «Information for scientific secretaries», a list of tips, «Announcements for Protection», «Regulations», «Information materials». Something exclusive is given here: «Announcements of protection of theses in the Southern Federal University» offer calendar search, search by the council of specialties on scientific directions and the ones submitted for consideration, the level of the theses is also adjustable (all, only
PhD or only doctoral) - so there is an extremely wide range of possibilities.
But there are not so many user friendly sites.
For example, the webpage of the Voronezh State University. Link in the author's abstract, leads to the scientific information portal of VSU, the last (ninth) section of which (indicated in the left horizontal menu) - «State certification» actually includes», «Dissertation councils», «Defense of the thesis», «Archives of defense». In the «Dissertation Councils' section there are three parts», «Announcements», «Theses submitted by applicants» and «Applicants admitted to protection». The very presentation of information does not help the exact search for relevant information, because, as already noted, not everyone is interested in the whole thesis on the specialty 10.01.10, the number of the council does not help to know anything about some particular thesis, leaving only the surname, name and patronymic - active link provides access to a page of dissertation, where we finally can read the topic of research. This principle of the information maintained in relation to authors, who have just placed a thesis on the site and those who are already admitted to the defense, and those for which the council has already made the decision, and the defense has already taken place.
Kuban State University' main search principle is the code of the council (D 212.101.04), but having overcome this obstacle, we obtain access to all necessary information.
Russian State Humanitarian University has placed the information about the dissertation councils into the «Preparation of highly qualified personnel» section. We have to look through all name lists searching the ones relating to our specialty.
A similar surname principle has been chosen by Ural Federal University named after the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin, although in this case getting to the pages of theses authors is not so easy: Department certification of the teaching staff has its own site, and we then have to navigate by the number of the council.
Homepage has already become a tendency. The Department of certification of the teaching staff of the Kazan (Volga) Federal University, which has also got a webpage, provides the search firstly by Science (Philology), but information needed can be found by the number of the council in the archive of announcements.
There is another institution, where there is a council for our specialty. Link which is listed in the abstract, sends us to the home page of the Academy of Media Industry - Institute for Advanced Training of TV and radio broadcasting staff. And this is how the «quest» begins: the theses council is on a prominent second place in the left column, but the link goes to an announcement «All theses and abstracts can be found in the library of the Institute on the 8th floor in the room 805 on sites http://www.ipk.ru/; http://vak.ed.gov.ru». But the difficulties only harden us! Below, in the left panel the following information is given: «Date of defense of theses by Lobodenko L. K. and Strokova Yu. A. are appointed», which opens access to text ads on the defense containing all necessary information above the one that is already well-known from the first page of the site that is the title of dissertation - and its topic , title, time and place of defense. One more transition -
and we have access to the documents of the first stage, placed during the acceptance decision making. But where to find the archive, since it is possible that is does not exist? In the menu bar (after «The Institute», «Education» and «Science»). Note that usually the section «Dissertation Council» is to be looked for in the «Science» section, making it as a separate option on this site seams to be a good decision. The principle of «blind» in-formation that is already familiar to us keeps working further: under the heading «Theses approved for defense» ten candidates for a degree are listed; to find out what these candidates have defended and their specialties, (they are two of the media industry in the Academy - 10.01.10 - journalism (philological sciences) and 17.00.03 - the movie - TV - and other screen arts (art history), you need to open the page of each of the candidates for a degree.
What does us the Chelyabinsk University's webpage propose? Link leads from the abstract to the home page. In the menu bar in the «Science» section there is information on the dissertation councils, one of which approves theses for defense in two specialties: 10.01.10 - journalism and 10.02.19 - the theory of language. Then the familiar pattern of lack of information at the apparent saturation of it (as the title name in favor of the applicant, and in the name of all the documents specify the type of document or name of the applicant or author) takes place. The topic of the dissertation, and the specialty for which it is defended, can be learnt only by opening at least one document, such as abstract, in each of the 18 sets. Only in such a difficult way, we find out that the specialty 10.01.10 just 6 of them.
This is the real picture of access to information. Now let us pass on to a closer look at the information itself.
Analysis of the dissertation councils revealed trends and facts unfamiliar to our Board.
The most important of the unusual is the industry expertise ofhighly qualified personnel, commitment to which Lomonosov State University has been demonstrating by proposing the professionals from the industry to be opponents for theses. In the role of the official opponents (regarding only PhD only), director of consulting company, deputy head of department of strategic marketing of «Rosgosstrakh», Executive Director of the financial and economic information of the «Interfax», the producer of the Directorate chief producer of ANO «Public Television of Russia», the editor of the issuing Brigade program «Vesti» from «Russia» TV channel, the head of department on work with state authorities, public organizations and mass media of «Gazpromgazoraspredelenie» Active State Advisor of the third class, the Deputy Director General of «Omega», Head of Strategic Development, JSC «Jha -Ela», public authorities interaction manager from Google Russia and even the teacher of foreign languages. But today in compliance with the new requirements, we are able to ask the opponent about his or her scientific publications, range of scientific interests, engagement in academic work (e.g., a correspondent of department of international politics from JSC «Nezavisimaya Gazeta» (Independent newspaper), or the manager of a limited liability company «Mirantis IT»).
Industry Expertise is also (although more seldom) used by some other councils of Moscow and regional universities. Thus, the deputy chief of information programs TV STRC
«Tver», senior editor of television programs of «Teleport», head of broadcasting state television and radio company «Belgorod», editor of the social problems of regional newspaper «Kuban today», editor Department of acquisition and processing of scientific fund of TV materials of the State fund of television and radio programs, a leading expert of the Department for Press and Mass Media Committee of the Republic of Adygea for Nationalities, Relations with Compatriots and the media, the deputy chief of information programs, TV chief editor of the «Lead-Mordovia», the newscaster of information programs were the experts.
It should be noted that the tendency to attract professionals from the industry for certification of highly qualified personnel showed up particularly in 2012. Beforehand, while getting acquainted with abstracts, one experienced the inability to see the review the opponent or leading organization. Now he becomes a kind of opponent is the object of examination. And all the theses is spread before the eyes!
Second. Let us comment on the interesting, but rare occurrence - co-branding in the preparation of the research, when in the title of the organization where the dissertation was made, two universities are given.
Let's start with an example of implicit partnership, when supervisor of the thesis is the Head of Department of Mass Communications of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia and scientific consultant is the Professor of History and the legal regulation of the Faculty of Journalism. A more complex form of cooperation, when the head of the thesis is from a Russian university and a consultant on the subject is a professor of Beijing University of Foreign Languages. Both defended the thesis on the board of People's Friendship University of Russia.
Let us comment on another option of scientific interuniversity cooperation: the dissertation performed at the department of public relations, journalism and advertising of the Humanities Institute, Cherepovets State University and the Department of TV journalism at the Academy of media industry. Supervisor is from Cherepovets State University, scientific consultant is from the Academy of the media industry. It would be interesting to learn out how and where the discussion took place, who prepared the conclusion of the organization and how in general such unions are organized. But this was a distant 2013, when a look at thesis entrails was still impossible (How rapidly the information environment is changing!).
An example of the system-defined, formalized relationship is a joint research project of the department of general and classical linguistics of Tver State University and the department of the theory of language and intercultural communication of Tver State Agricultural Academy. This collaboration brought two theses. High school co-branding is reflected in the author's abstract. Both supervisor and scientific consultant are from Tver State University, thesis was presented to the defense to the council of this university, and the universities are geografically close. But questions about the details, such as overcoming bureaucratic procedures still remain unanswered.
Finally, there are two examples of not just a university but international partnership - the Department of International Journalism at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University and the Department of history and theory of journalism and electronic
media in the Russian-Tajik (Slavonic) University.
Another sort of manifestation of co-branding (mainly performed by the experience of Lomonosov Moscow State University) is a partnership agreement between the two academic staff members, where one is the supervisor, and the otheris- the scientific adviser of dissertation.
The work of our dissertation council also has not yet approved the practice of inviting opponents from other countries, although the governing documents do not prohibit doing this.
Third. It is a difficult problem, that has affected the councils of SPSU - how to mention the organization where the work was performed. It is the second year when the university indicates itself as a place of the work execution, and not the Department or other unit. It seems that other universities are now at crossroads. But, in our opinion, it is difficult to agree on the usefulness of such generalizations: decades will pass, and historians of science will find it difficult to recover the information about what was the life-giving soil on which the thesis was born; judging from the defenses we can trace the intensity of refreshing of certain scientific fields and the formation of schools. That is to say, we believe such a unification (council - institution), to be short-sighted and unreasonable.
The most important point is the fact that today all conditions for the rehabilitation of the thesis and maximum transparency in the attestation of scientific personnel have been created.
References
1. Savelyev, Y. (2006). The art of «historicism «in the state order of the second half of XIX - early XX century (as exemplified by «Byzantine» and Russian style).URL:http:// vak1.ed.gov.ru/ru/dissert at ion/subscription/index. php?id54=8987&from54=1362
2. Yevdokimov, V. (2007). The role of the media in the politicization of social cof-lict.URL:http://vak1.ed.gov.ru/ru/ dissertation/subscription/index.php?id54=10557&from54=5
3. Feschenko, L. (2011). Journalism: Bibliographic Index: 1990-2010. URL: http://jf.spbu.ru/upload/files/ file_1341918176_2473.pdf
4. Berger, N. (2006). Investigation as a method of journalism. URL: http://dlib.rsl.ru/ viewer/01003276129#?page=1; Teplyashina, A. (2007). Creative nature of comic (genre paradigm of modern journalism). URL: http://dlib.rsl.ru/viewer/01003158333#?page= 1 ; Kiuru, K. (2008). Promo mediatext in political communication: discourse analysis. URL: http://dlib.rsl.ru/viewer/01003448191#?page=1
5. Burlak, S. (2013). Evolutionary mechanisms and stages of human language. URL: http://dlib.rsl.ru/ viewer/01005534869#?page=1; Fedorova, O. (2013). Experimental Analysis of Discourse: Theory and Practice. URL: http://dlib.rsl.ru/viewer/01005060521#?page=1; Ivanova, E. (2011). Professionalization of Internet journalism in the blogosphere. URL: http://dlib.rsl.ru/ viewer/01004858711#?page=1; Sulimov, V. (2011). Literary texts in the intellectual space of contemporary culture. URL: http://dlib.rsl.ru/viewer/01004846399#?page=1
