Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INION RAN) was established in 1969 as a successor to the Fundamental Library for Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR which was founded in 1918 as the Library of the Socialist Academy.

The history of INION is presented on a heritage page (http://heritage.inion.ru/).

Main fields of INION’s scientific activity are:

• fundamental, exploratory and applied research in the fields of Social Sciences and Humanities, Computer Science, Library Science and Bibliography – both within state assignment for institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences (http://inion.ru/science/temy-nir/?year=2018) and within research with financial support of the Russian Science Foundation, Russian Foundation for Basic Research and some other endowments (http://inion.ru/science/issledovatel-skie-proekty/);
• elaboration of information systems in the fields of Social Sciences and Humanities (http://inion.ru/resources/bazy-dannykh-inion-ran/);
• development of INION’s Fundamental Library and its 21 branches and bibliographic services at research institutions, including digital projects (http://inion.ru/library/about/);
• editorial and publishing activities (http://inion.ru/publishing/vidy-izdanii/), as well as conferences, presentations and other scientific events.

INION’s acting director is Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Science in Economy, Alexey V. Kuznetsov (http://inion.ru/about/personalities/kuznetsov-aleksei-vladimirovich/). 

INION RAN is famous in the Russian and international scholars’ communities for its publications: monographs and analytical reports, abstract collections, bibliographies, scientific journals and bulletins, as well as for its Fundamental research library and many digital bibliographic resources. In particular it should be mentioned:

• Political Science is a scholar journal included in RSCI database on Web of Science and recommended by the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation (http://inion.ru/publishing/journals/politicheskaia-nauka/). 
• Current Problems of Europe is a scholar journal recommended by the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation (https://upe-journal.ru/en/). 
• Russia and the Contemporary World is a scholar journal recommended by the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation (http://rossovmir.ru/en/).
• Russia and the Moslem World publishes articles, reviews, reports, reference information on relations between Russia and the Islamic World. The bulletin is printed in Russian and in English, four issues in Russian and four issues in English a year.
• Manuscripta Islamica Rossica is a digital database of arabographic collections of manuscripts in Russia (http://manuscriptaislamica.ru/en). 
• Digital database of Russian newspapers of First World War and Civil War (1914-1922) (http://newspapers.historyrussia.org/).

INION’s structure

Research divisions:

• Center of Scientific Information Studies in Social Sciences (http://inion.ru/about/departments/tcentr-sotcial-nykh-nauchno-informatcionnykh-issledovanii/) 
• Center of Scientific Information Studies in Humanities (http://inion.ru/about/departments/tcentr-gumanitarnykh-nauchno-informatcionnykh-issledovanii/) 
• Center of Scientific Information Studies on Global and Regional Issues (http://inion.ru/about/departments/tsentr-nauchno-informatsionnykh-issledovanii-globalnykh-i-regionalnykh-problem/) 
• Center of Scientific Information Studies in Science, Education and Technologies (http://inion.ru/about/departments/tsentr-nauchno-informatsionnykh-issledovanii-po-nauke-obrazovaniiu-i-tekhnologiiam/) 
• Center of Russian Studies (http://inion.ru/about/departments/tsentr-rossievedeniia/) 
• Center for Advanced Methodologies of Social and Humanitarian Studies (http://inion.ru/about/departments/tsentr-perspektivnykh-metodologii-sotcialno-gumanitarnykh-issledovanii/) 
• Center for Comparative Study of Civilizations (http://inion.ru/about/departments/tsentr-sravnitelnogo-izucheniia-tsivilizatcii/) 
• Centre for the Study of Informatics (http://inion.ru/about/departments/tsentr-po-izucheniiu-problem-informatiki/) 

Library and Information divisions:

• INION’s Fundamental Library (http://inion.ru/library/about/)
• Network of 21 libraries by research institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Sinologist Library, Library on Oriental Studies, Library on World Literature, etc.) (http://inion.ru/library/filialy/) 
• Information Science Center (http://inion.ru/about/departments/tsentr-informatizatsii/) 
• Department of Biography and Bibliography of Scientists (http://inion.ru/about/departments/otdel-biobibliografii-uchenykh/) 
• Department for Scientific Cooperation (http://inion.ru/about/departments/otdel-nauchnogo-sotrudnichestva/) 
• Publishing Center (http://inion.ru/publishing/publications/)