The History of Science Studies, the Demography of Science and the Problem of Scientific Mobility

Science studies is a relatively young field, having emerged in the second half of the twentieth century. In contrast to philosophy and history of science, that consider science as a system of knowledge, science studies focus on science as a specific form of knowledge production activity. With the increasing influence of science on the development of society, it has also become the object of economic, sociological, psychological and scientometric research. The aim of this paper is to review the main stages in the development of the Science studies based on a literature review and to examine the range of issues that have been and are being developed by scholars, paying particular attention to the development of research on the demography of science and academic mobility. Over a period of almost sixty years of development, Russian science studies has experienced ups and downs in its history. This has affected the study of both methodological and applied problems in science studies. Significant methodological problems include, in particular, the problem of interdisciplinary structure of science studies (economics of science, sociology of science, psychology of science, etc.). In the 1990s, amid the crisis in science management, issues of demographic nature began to take on an important role, touching on socially "acute" problems of post-Soviet science development (depopulation of science, "aging" of scientific personnel, active external and internal migration of scientists, superfeminization of science, etc.). In our view, the social need for a systematic study contributes to the emergence of a new, independent area of scientific research - "demography of science", which has its own subject matter and a specific range of scientific problems. It is noted that, while in Soviet times science research was of little applied importance, the situation has changed since the collapse of the USSR. Research on the demography of science, in particular the study of the international migration of scientists, has gained practical significance, as the results of this research have been used to make recommendations for improving science policy and developing cooperation with scientists who have migrated abroad.