Russian science closes access to foreign scientific publications because of debt

Publisher Springer closes access to Russian scholars and research institutes to scientific publications because of the debt of the Russian government for a subscription. The amount of debt is 890 thousand euros.

According to the head of the Springer representative office in Russia and the CIS countries, Matthias Eicher, access is closed from May 12. He noted that the subscription for 2014 was not paid, and for the last 4 months access was provided free of charge. “It is no longer possible to prolong this situation,” said Mr. Eicher.

One of the causes of the debt was the collapse of the ruble in 2014 year. The purchase of a subscription to scientific publications is the responsibility of the government Russian Foundation for Basic Research. According to his representative, Alexander Khlunov, due to the fact that the subscription price is calculated in euros, its cost for the Russian budget has doubled, and now such expenses are not provided.

According to Vladimir Fortov, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, without a subscription to Springer’s publications, Russian science will not be able to fully develop.