The authors selected a number of authoritative academic English-language journals on nationalism, ethnicity, ethnic and civic identity, nation-building and related subjects. They conducted lexicographical and content analysis of abstracts and keywords, as well as of some articles published in the last ten years. The aim of the research was to reveal the most frequently used terms, concepts and categories, to define the directions and focus of academic activities in the mentioned research areas, to identify and compare the conceptual and categorial thesaurus used by Russian and foreign scholars.