Zoologicheskii Zhurnal

About Zoologicheskii Zhurnal

Zoologicheskii Zhurnal — Journal Profile

Zoologicheskii Zhurnal (Зоологический журнал; in English, the Zoological Journal) is a Russian zoological journal published in Moscow and catalogued under ISSN 0044-5134. It is one of the long-lived national zoology journals of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: an encyclopaedia account of the journal records that it was founded in 1916 by A. N. Severtsov under the title Russkii zoologicheskii zhurnal (Russian Zoological Journal) and that it received its current title in 1932. The Journals World record for post 32142 carries the same ISSN and a Russian Federation origin, and the OpenAlex source record resolved directly from that ISSN confirms the journal under its Russian title, with the Russian Academy of Sciences as host organisation.

Readers meeting the journal for the first time should understand what kind of authority it carries. This is a taxonomy- and fauna-centred journal from the Russian academic tradition, in which new descriptions, revisions, faunistic inventories, morphology and zoogeography have been published, month by month, for generations. For many animal groups, especially across Russia, the former Soviet territories and the wider Palaearctic, the primary record of a species, a distribution or a morphological argument may be in this journal, in Russian, with an English summary. That makes it indispensable for taxonomists and faunists, and demanding for readers who do not work in Russian. Both facts belong in an honest profile.

At a Glance

A note on the publisher name, because the sources do not agree on a single modern form and an honest profile should say so. The stored Journals World publisher field is a numeric taxonomy identifier, not a readable name. A SCImago-derived listing consulted for this profile names the publisher as Izdatel'stvo Nauka, while another listing names MAIK Nauka-Interperiodica as publisher, and OpenAlex gives the Russian Academy of Sciences as host organisation. Those names reflect the journal's Academy and Nauka publishing history and the different roles of owner, host and publishing house at different times. Authors should take the publisher imprint from the current issue itself for citation purposes and should not treat any single secondary listing as the whole publishing history.

History: From 1916 to the Present Journal

The encyclopaedia account is concise and specific. The journal was founded in 1916 by A. N. Severtsov — Aleksey Nikolayevich Severtsov, a central figure in Russian evolutionary morphology — under the title Russkii zoologicheskii zhurnal. In 1932 it received its current title, Zoologicheskii Zhurnal. It was a scientific journal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, published monthly in Moscow, carrying articles by Soviet and foreign scientists, accompanied by resumes in English, with a circulation of approximately 2,300 recorded for 1971 in that account. Each element of that description still helps a modern reader: the Academy connection explains the journal's national role, the monthly rhythm explains its volume of record, and the English resumes explain how its Russian-language content entered international zoological bibliography long before online translation.

Continuity to the present is not in doubt. The journal's current Russian site shows volume 104, number 9, in 2025, carrying for example a morphometric study of the third upper cheek tooth of chromosomal races of the Evoron vole, with samples from the Russian Far East and laboratory lines, and a chronicle piece marking the centenary of the herpetologist Pyotr Petrovich Gambaryan. A journal at volume 104 in 2025, still publishing primary taxonomic and morphological work and still marking the history of its own discipline, is a living journal with a century-scale archive, not a historical title. The Journals World stored coverage — 1950–1951, 1982–1983 and 1996–2025 in separated windows — is a database coverage pattern, of the kind Scopus-based listings also show, and it must not be read as the journal ceasing and restarting in those gaps. The archive is far longer than any single database window.

The English-language relationship needs care. OpenAlex lists an alternate title form that includes “Russian Journal of Zoology” alongside the Russian title, and publishing material for the Academy's English programme describes the Russian Journal of Zoology as founded in 1916 and publishing articles on all trends of investigation of the animal world. Historically, English versions of material from this journal family have also appeared in related English journals by subject area — the same publishing description notes that English versions on entomology, ichthyology and hydrobiology appear in Entomological Review, Journal of Ichthyology and Hydrobiological Journal respectively. A Journals World search for the translation ISSN 1560-0912 returned no post in the check carried out for this profile, so no separate Journals World twin for an English edition is reported here. Readers who need an English text should check, paper by paper, whether an English version exists in one of those routes, rather than assuming a complete parallel English edition of every Russian article.

Scope: Zoology in the Russian Academic Tradition

The encyclopaedia scope list remains a good map: problems of evolution of the animal world, morphology, taxonomy, classification of fauna, zoogeography, ecology, ethology, hydrobiology and parasitology, together with papers relevant to the economy, environmental protection and public health, and critical surveys of new zoological literature. The English-programme aims description for the journal family widens the same territory in modern wording: systematics, morphology, histology, cytology, ontogenetics, ecology, ecological physiology, zoogeography, conservation and use of the animal world, with attention to adaptive mechanisms, species formation, evolutionary process, community and ecosystem dynamics, bioenergetics, population assessment and control, zoological mapping and biomechanics. It singles out the journal's standing with taxonomists worldwide as an authoritative source of taxonomic information on all groups of the animal world.

OpenAlex topic data, from the source record resolved from the ISSN (S119786188), show where the indexed weight actually falls: invertebrate taxonomy and ecology, animal ecology and behaviour studies, and avian ecology and behaviour are the leading topics on that record, within life, environmental and agricultural and biological science fields. That distribution matches the journal's reputation. Expect strengths in invertebrate and vertebrate taxonomy and faunistics, in morphology used as evidence for classification and evolution, in Palaearctic distribution work, and in ecology grounded in particular faunas and places. Expect less, by comparison, of the model-organism molecular biology or global meta-analysis style that dominates some large international zoology titles. Neither strength is a defect; they are different instruments. A new species description, a revised key, a chromosomal race comparison such as the 2025 vole study, or a regional fauna inventory belongs here in a way it does not belong in a general science weekly.

For conservation readers, the journal's value is archival as much as current. Inventories, distribution baselines and population assessments published here across the Soviet and post-Soviet periods are the evidence against which later change in rare species, bioresource use and biodiversity is measured. The aims material for the journal family explicitly connects that archival role to present questions: estimating the state of populations of rare species, principles for assessing and rationally using fauna resources, and inventory and conservation of biodiversity under environmental dynamics.

Metrics and Indexing — Three Different Pictures

Three h-index figures are in hand for this journal, and this profile reports all three with their sources rather than choosing one silently. The Journals World stored record reports 23. A SCImago-derived listing consulted for this profile reports an h-index of 21, an SJR of 0.126, an overall rank around 26,768, a best quartile of Q4 in ecology, evolution, behaviour and systematics, and a publisher-country record for the Russian Federation. The OpenAlex source record resolved from the ISSN reports 3,586 works, 4,329 citations, an h-index of 15, an i10-index of 51, and a two-year mean citedness of about 0.19. The differences follow from coverage: which citing journals each database counts, in which languages, and over which years. Russian-language zoological citation is systematically under-captured by some international indexes, which is one reason the spread here is wide.

The practical guidance is straightforward. Quote a metric only with its source and date. Do not compare this journal's h-index in one database with another journal's h-index in a different database. Do not treat Q4 as a quality verdict on a century-old taxonomic journal whose main outputs — names, descriptions, keys and faunistic records — are used for decades without generating rapid citations. And do not claim a Web of Science impact factor or a DOAJ open-access listing for this journal: a DOAJ search-API query for its ISSN returned no record in this check, OpenAlex records it as not open access, and no impact factor was verified from an authoritative source in hand. Access is therefore best described as subscription and library based for the main journal, with individual older material sometimes reachable through academy and library digitisation, paper by paper.

Publishing Practice, Review and Fees

Several operational details could not be verified from an official English-language journal page in the sources consulted for this profile: the current editor-in-chief by name, the stated review model and timetable, submission mechanics for foreign authors, and any page or publication charge. Those items are recorded here as not published in the sources consulted, or as points that could not be verified, and they should be obtained from the journal's current Russian site and editorial office before any submission is prepared. That is a normal precaution for a Russian-language academy journal, whose authoritative instructions are published in Russian for its primary author community.

What can be advised on solid ground is the shape of a suitable manuscript. Taxonomic and faunistic papers should give full material examined, localities, dates, collectors and depositories, and should state nomenclatural acts clearly so that indexing services such as zoological record systems can capture them. Morphological papers should define measurements and terms exactly, as the journal's own recent vole paper does with its morphotype methods. Papers should carry a careful English summary where the journal requires one, because for many international readers that summary is the entry point to the work. References to this journal in other literature should give the transliterated title consistently — Zoologicheskii Zhurnal as in this record — with volume, year and pages, and the Russian title where a reference style supports it.

Who Should Read and Publish Here

Publish here if you are a taxonomist, faunist, morphologist or zoogeographer whose work needs the Russian and Palaearctic specialist readership and the permanence of the Academy journal record, and if you can prepare the work in Russian to the journal's current instructions. Read here if you work on any animal group with a Russian, Siberian, Far Eastern, Central Asian or wider Palaearctic literature: ignoring this journal risks missing the original description, the first record, or the baseline inventory for your taxon or region. Approach with realistic expectations if you need English-only publication, open-access licensing, or rapid international citation metrics; on the evidence in hand, this journal offers none of those as its main proposition, and it should be judged instead on depth, continuity and taxonomic authority.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the same journal as the Russian Journal of Zoology? They are closely related names for the same journal tradition: the 1916 founding title was Russkii zoologicheskii zhurnal, rendered in English as Russian Zoological Journal or Russian Journal of Zoology, and OpenAlex lists that English form as an alternate title on the record for ISSN 0044-5134. This Journals World post is the record for the Russian journal under ISSN 0044-5134, and no separate Journals World post was found for translation ISSN 1560-0912 in this check.

Why do databases show coverage starting in 1950 or 1996? Those are indexing windows in Scopus-derived listings, reproduced in the stored record. The journal itself dates to 1916 and was publishing long before those windows.

Is it open access? Not on the evidence in hand: no DOAJ record was returned for its ISSN and OpenAlex records the source as not open access. Treat access as library and subscription based unless a specific paper is openly posted by a legitimate source.

What are its charges and review times? Not published in the sources consulted for this profile and could not be verified here. Obtain them from the editorial office in Russian before submitting.

How should I cite it? As Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, with year, volume, issue and pages, adding the Russian title Зоологический журнал where appropriate, and ISSN 0044-5134 for catalogue identification.

Verification Note

This profile is anchored to the Journals World record for Zoologicheskii Zhurnal (ISSN 0044-5134, Russian Federation, Q4, h-index 23 in the stored record). History and scope were taken from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia account of the journal as reproduced in a reference source, checked for continuity against the journal's current Russian site showing volume 104 in 2025. Metrics were taken, with attribution, from a SCImago-derived listing and from an OpenAlex source record resolved directly from the ISSN (S119786188; the phantom identifier named in the assignment was avoided). A DOAJ search-API query for the ISSN returned no record. The additional ISSN 3034-5456 is reported only as an OpenAlex-listed companion number on that source record. Publisher naming is reported with its disagreement across sources, rather than smoothed over, and operational details that no consulted source supported are left as not published or unverified.

How to Use This Journal in Research

Approach the archive systematically, by taxon and by author school, rather than by keyword alone. Russian zoological publishing is organised around institutes, laboratories and long research programmes — on a genus, a fauna, a sea, a mountain system — and the same names recur across decades as descriptions, revisions and inventories accumulate. Tracing an author and an institute through the journal often recovers a chain of papers that a title search in transliteration will miss, because transliteration of the journal title and of author names varies between databases and periods.

Handle citations with particular care. Record the year, volume, issue and pages exactly as printed, give the transliterated journal title in one consistent form, and where an English version of a paper exists in a related English journal, cite the version you actually read and note the Russian original. Do not cite an English summary as if it were the full paper: summaries in this tradition are faithful but compressed, and taxonomic acts, material lists and locality data live in the Russian text and its tables.

For collection-based work, treat the journal and the museum record as partners. Descriptions and revisions published here refer to specimens in Russian and former Soviet collections, and later inventory and conservation papers refer back to those same specimens and localities. A modern revision that ignores this journal risks redescribing known material; a modern distribution model that ignores it discards a century of baseline localities. That double risk — taxonomic and ecological — is the practical case for learning to use this Russian-language archive, with translation help where necessary, rather than working around it.

A further caution concerns dates in databases. A listing that shows this journal under a year range ending in 2023 or 2024 is reporting the last year that database had indexed at the time its record was compiled, not the journal's cessation. The 2025 volume evidence cited above is later than those windows, so any statement that the journal ceased in the year a listing ends would be wrong on the evidence in hand. When a catalogue, an aggregator and the journal's own current site disagree about currency, the journal's own site — showing a numbered issue in the current period — is the strongest evidence, and database end dates should be reported as coverage end dates, with the database named, never as a closure date for the journal itself.