Humanities journal versus a collection of scientific papers?

The article analyzes the current crisis of Ukrainian scientific periodicals and the role of scientific journal  as  a  means  of  self-organization and communication in the  scientific  community. Purely bureaucratic  state  regulation  of  scientific  activity  led  to  a  degradation  of  science  and  scientific periodicals in Ukraine. A good expression of that situation is the practice of so-called “professional periodicals”. The result of this practice is a huge number of periodicals that are officially recognized by  the  state  and  have,  despite  this,  a  null  scientific  level.  However,  this  practice  contributed  to corruption in the field of academic research and replaces the real investigations with poor quality simulations.  Consequently,  the  existing  system  of  scientific  periodicals  in  Ukraine should be abolished as being completely discredited. The authors propose a list of principles to build a new system of scientific periodicals in Ukraine. Chief among them are the principles of (1) rejection of a purely formal assessments of scientific results and (2) the replacement of bureaucratic regulation of scientific journals to standards recognized in the international science. The authors also describe the  features  of  the  application  of  international  standards  in  Ukrainian  scientific  periodicals,  especially the emphasis on publication ethics and on the independent peer-review procedure. The article also substantiates the role of a humanities journal as an organ of the scientific community and a platform for discussing the major challenges facing society.