The annual conference series “Scientific periodicals: traditions and innovations” initiated on June 9, 2010 in Kyiv is dedicated to the discussions of the essentials of scientific publishing: what should be done / not done to make our journals better, what steps were successful or not. All conference material is published in a book series Science of Ukraine in the Global Information Space (issues 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14). The questions addressed include: how to start publishing; what do we do wrong; where the journal should be indexed; how to include a journal into the Web of Science or Scopus; where to find a reviewer; what is the best format for references; how to get DOIs; how many people should be in an editorial team. We also discuss how to escape plagiarism and autoplagiarism (both are is not welcome in a scientific community); the format or current publications. We provide answers to questions frequently asked during seminars and webinars.