In 2018, on September 26-29, Scientific Information Analysis and Monitoring Center (CSIAM) of the Institute of Informatics and Automation of the National Academy of Sciences of RA organized the second international summer school on “Modern Trends in Science: Scientometrics”

More than three dozens of participants from different Armenian universities took part in the summer school, including Slavik Alaverdyan, lecturer at YSU Ijevan Branch, Department of General Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Assistant of Department of Armenian Language and Literature, Ph.D. Siranush Hovhannisyan.

Vladimir Sahakyan, Director of the Institute of Informatics and Automation of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia made an opening speech. He noted that the scientific Scientometrics  is a relatively new direction in Armenia, and such international programs will contribute to the popularization of Armenian science.

During the summer school, leading experts in the field of Scientometrics from Belgium, Italy, Russia and Armenia delivered lectures.

Head of the Scientific Information Analysis and Monitoring Center, Shushanik Sargsyan presented the mission, structure and activities of the center. The main focus of the center is Scientometrics which is concerned with the quantitative features and characteristics of science and scientific research, used to evaluate the performance, efficiency and competitiveness of science systems. The Center is calculating the Impact Factor of national journals, creating and coordinating various scientific databases, organizing scientific awareness-raising activities, and more.

CSIAM’s activity addressees are:

• Editors of scientific journals,
• Scientists and researchers,
• Universities and research institutes,
• Interested organizations in the field of science and scientific policy.

Professor of the University of Leuven, International Science Adviser Wolfgang Glänzel made two lectures during which he presented bibliographical datasets (Web of Science, SCOPUS, Google Scholar), from the point of view of data collection and accuracy, different scientific criteria (how many articles are published by this or that scientist, how many references are made, how is calculated the impact factor of the journal, etc.), scientific issues (copywriting, false thesis, etc.), the peculiarities of the different directions of science in terms of the use of science and its results.

Domenico Augusto Maisano, Associate Professor of “National Polytechnic University of Italy, Turin Italy”,conducted a webinar.

He presented the topical issues of the bibliographic database, the most widespread mistakes (including author’s name, title, date of publication, volume, title, and citation of translations, references, etc.) and steps to minimize them.

Viktor Gluxov, Deputy Director of the Russian Scientific Electronic Library (eLibrary), noted that the library, in contrast to the international bibliographic database, is a complete text base that includes articles, dissertations, inventions, and patent applications from Russian and foreign scientists published in different world journals. Different statistics, the best journals of the Library are included in the Russion Citation Index  (RINC, RSCI).

Alexan Shahkhatuni, Scientific Adviser of the Scientific Information Analysis and Monitoring Center, spoke about frauds in scientific ethics, publications, bibliography and scientometrics. He presented anti-scientific, paid services offered by some people and organizations at every stage of the research (disclosure, publicity, dissemination, assessment, etc.), and their negative impact on the scientist’s career and ways of avoiding them.

Dr. Victor Blaginin,Ural State University of Economics, Director of the Center on Scientometrics and Ranking Researches, spoke on scientific magazines, scientometrics, guarantees and international standards.

Denis Kosyakov, a deputy director and scientific researcher at the State Public Scientific Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russion Academy of Sciences (SPSTL SB RAS), touched upon the difficult problems of the field of scientific research. He noted that for individual scholars, research groups, universities and other organizations, depending on the nature and scope of their study, there must be different criteria, few dozens of criteria should be taken into account, and the scientific policy should not be based on only numbers but also on the experts’ data.

Edita Gzoyan, Deputy Head of the Center for Scientific Information Analysis and Monitoring, made a speech about the  scientometrics of social sciences and humanities.

An expert in bibliometrics at the company “Clarivate Analytics” (former “Thomson Reuters”) Pavel Kasyanov presented the scientific publications and bibliometric research statistics of Armenia, comparisons with neighboring and CIS countries, leading sectors, and number of international research programs by partner countries. He also pointed out that the Impact Factor was not an indicator of the effectiveness of scientists, but the quality of the magazine, as well as what was the essence of the category-normalized citation impact (CNCI) and the h- index (H), gave advises on how to use bibliographic data.

Margarita Sidorova, a manager on the works with key clients at the company “Clarivate Analytics”, presented the capabilities for research and integration into world science due to Claritive Analytics. In particular, she mentioned that in 72 million records of the database, one can make a search by subject, author and so on, then clarify the search and classify by year, reference number or other index. She also added that researchers can register in the system to get identity ID (Researcher ID), with the help of which the system works more efficiently when allocating articles with the same surname and name.

At the end of the event, the participants received certificates.

Details can be found at http://csiamconf2018.sci.am

Information about center’s activities at http://csiam.sci.am

In 2018, on September 21, a group of students of YSU Ijevan branch participated in the events in Yerevan on the occasion of the 27th anniversary of RA independence.

Our students first took part in the intellectual game held at “Congress” Hotel.

Then the university students visited Republic square where various literary, musical and cultural events were held on the occasion of Independence Day.

On Republic square, the event was accompanied by musical, theatrical performances, pavilions related to different styles of art.

Our students presented their works in the pavilion for Tavush Region.

After participating in the events, the university students returned to Ijevan with pleasant and memorable impressions.

Within the framework of the “Caring for Equality” program World Vision Armenia (WWF) implemented a regional event on September 26, in 2018.

The representatives of RA Tavush Administrative Region from Department of Family, Women and Children’s Rights Protection, the Coordinators of “Caring for Equality” program of World Vision Armenia Office in Yerevan, the representatives of YSU IB, YSU IB Graduate School and External Partnership Coordinator, Student Council Chairman, students and  other guests.

During the event, one of the main objectives set by WWF was to introduce the participants the issues of gender equality and opportunities for equality, following a photo contest.

The main objective of the “Caring for Equity” program is to promote the prevention of child gender selection in the pre-natal period, in the Armenian communities and families.

The project is planned to be implemented from 2016 to 2019.

Our students also actively took part in the event.

Hrant Gharagyozyan, Chairman of YSU IB Student Scientific Society, who has conducted an online survey evaluating measurements of gender equality, summed up the results in the framework of the “Caring for Equity” program.

Gharagyozyan particularly mentioned that 40 people (students and other young people) took part in the survey from Tavush, 80% of which were from Ijevan and neighboring regions.

The results showed that 51.3% of the respondents often or almost always meet gender discrimination, 39.5% rarely, and 12.8% did not meet such cases.

The Chairman of YSU IB Student Scientific Society added that there is a misunderstanding on the concept of “gender” and the gender issue in Tavush.

Students of the Faculty of Humanities of the YSU IB, twin sisters Diana and Liana Yaralyan made a great performance.

Within the framework of the “Caring for Equity” program, Gurgen Dalian, a fourth-year student of Applied Arts of YSU IB, also made his contribution, he painted an angel’s wing on the wall of a sports school.

Susanne Mirzoyan, 3rd year student of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, took the 5th place in a photo contest and was awarded with a certificate and a gift by the organization.

Hrant Gharagyozyan, Student Scientific Society Chairman, also received an encouraging gift.

In 2018, on the 25th of September, at the Av. Isahakyan Library of Yerevan, the award ceremony of the short stories and the presentation of the literary-cultural magazine “Ardzagank” took place by the initiative of “Ardzagank” charity  company and its president, translator-literary critic Maro Madoyan-Alajajyan.

Maro Madoyan-Alajajyan, participants of the competition, jury members, writers, artists and readers, as well as employees of YSU Ijevan branch Levon Lachikyan , Slavik Alaverdyan and Lilit Mkrtchyan were present at the event.

First, the contest details have been presented that the contest is held for the second time, the purpose of which is to find new writers and open their way in the field of literature.

This time, dozens of artists, including Slavik Alaverdyan, a lecturer at YSU IB Department of General Mathematics and Natural Sciences, took part in the competition.

The members of the jury, Shakhim Shahinyan and Satenik Yeghiazaryan, summed up the results of the competition.

Two participants received 1st place prize, two participants, 2nd place prize. Another participant was awarded a special prize by Maro Madoyan-Alajajyan.

Other participants received certificates.

Then the presentation of the literary-cultural magazine “Ardzagank” took place with 1st place winning stories of literary competition.

Articles by Valmar, Hripsime Margaryan, Lilit Mkrtchyan, Karine Hakobyan were in the first issue of the magazine, works by Diaspora-Armenian writer Zareh Melkonyan, translations by Maro Madoyan-Alajajyan in the translation section.

Participants of the competition, authors of the magazine, other artists delivered their speech. They thanked the organizers of the competition, particularly Mrs. Maro Madoyan-Alajajyan, congratulated everyone on the release of the magazine and wished fruitful creative activity.

Levon Lachikyan, Assistant of the Department of Tourism Management and Cultural Studies of YSU IB, noted in his speech that he knew Maro from childhood since he was her classmate.

He emphasized the importance of creating such love and interest towards literature and culture through the publication of such magazines.

Associate Professor of Department of Armenian History and Social Sciences of Yerevan State University Ijevan branch. Lilit Mkrtchyan mentioned that in the first issue of the magazine, she touched upon the role of women in the army building and state-building process, and will also work to introduce female public figures in the next issues.

RA Minister of Diaspora Mkhitar Hayrapetyan delivered a welcoming speech on the occasion of the award and presentation.

At the end of the event, the participants received a collection of articles with the publisher Maro Madoyan-Alajajyan’s inscription and took part in the reception.

NOTE:

Maro Madoyan-Alajajyan is Gyumri theatre expert Razmik Madoyan’s daughter, author of several dozens of publicist articles, essays, short stories and plays. He is a translator of Elif Shafak’s novel, “The Bastard of Istanbul”, the collection of Alice Mano’s “Illusion” short stories, Paul Rudnik’s “I Hate Hamlet” play and other works. He is currently living in the United States, founder and director of “Ardzagank” charitable organization.

In 2018, on October 8, the premiere of Maro Madoyan-Alajajyan’s “Tomorrow will be late” play will take place in Russian Drama Theater named after K. Stanislavsky.