Are scientific journals needed (and by whom)? The context of the social sciences

Abstract

The article raises a few issues – essential in the author’s view – which are related to the place of scientific journals in the system of science, with special emphasis laid on the publishing practice of scholars representing the social sciences. The practice of overusing bibliometric indices with which individual journals are assigned – especially in evaluation procedures – is taken into account and subjected to criticism. The author strongly supports DORA (the declaration on research assessment) when it comes to the common practice of replacing peer review with a simpler and more effective procedure of using bibliometric indices (also to assess the performance of individual scholars). When employers (for instance, universities) exert pressure on scientists to obtain points from publications, this results in a number of pathological phenomena: the emergence of predatory journals and the appearance of ‘virtual’ teams of authors only pretending to collaborate. The article ends with the author's recommendations for young scientists on how to design their careers – including how to publish wisely in scientific journals.