There are approximately 130 to 150 legal scholarly journals in Poland, however, according to the Scimago Journal ranking in Central and Eastern Europe, the best Polish journal is only in the twentieth place. However, it ranks only 345th in the entire European Union. Why is this happening, asked participants in the conference, which was organized on Monday, May 24 of this year.

Quality of scientific articles

– The form and quality of legal scientific communication depends on the state of Polish legal sciences, or in other words – the higher the quality of Polish science, the higher the quality of scientific legal communication, especially the quality of the main carrier of this communication, which are legal scientific journals – he said. Doctor Hub. Marek Smolak (AMU) in a lecture entitled “A Quiet Introduction. How the State of Legal Sciences Shapes Legal Scientific Communication.”

a. Smolak cited legal science quality indicators according to Leszek Nowak:

  • Creative works that constitute a particular scientific theory
  • The application in relation to the theory and the corrective in relation to this theory
  • The educational nature resulting from the educational rotation
  • It may be of a common nature

– The choice of articles is dictated by the experience of the editor-in-chief – the professor said. Smolak added that the selection criterion was: the author’s reaction to changes in the legal and political system, or policy change in this area, objectivity, truth seeking, evaluation, text change, or bringing something new.

a. From Opole University, Dr. Piotr Stec presented the problems arising from the evaluation from the point of view of the Ministry of Science. He found that they were driving Two strategies – destructive and long-range strategy. The first is to control bulleted journals so that 10 academic colleges are left and the rest are professional colleges. The second temporary option is to maintain the current position and handle the weights in a way that nothing changes.

The sustainable development strategy is to adapt the list of journals to what lawyers are already living with. But this needs to be investigated, because the research so far is partial, the professor adds. Stec. – If we set the weights incorrectly, then we will only get the effect on paper, but it will not be the effect we want – emphasized.

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The new regulation will ensure transparency

In turn, prof. Doctor Hub. Valdemar Baruch (UMCS), editor-in-chief of Przegląd Sądowy, handled the transfer of knowledge into politics. He initially indicated that after the changes, not institutions, but disciplines will be evaluated. The science of law ceased to be a field and became part of the various social sciences. There was an embarrassing situation when Law 2.0 came into effect, which was to deal with the humanities, social and theological sciences from the perspective of separate sciences, as they create a political identity. The chosen collective bodies in the academic community have ignored this intention, as it is related to the science evaluation committee – the professor noted. Baruch.

– Legal sciences have certain requirements, which must serve the community. The regulation now in preparation means that the burden of evaluation will fall on the experts – added. As he emphasized, the new regulation should be transparent, with discretionary power as low as possible, as these were the fundamental accusations of the scientific community.

The role of magazines in the work of judges

Judges must explain the meaning of legal concepts in their rulings. The problem that arises in this context is the multiplicity of paradigms in the legal sciences. And there are reviews in which the authors argue with the authors, rather than concern themselves with the official level of the article, and provide a bibliography – indicated the Chief Administrative Court, Professor. Marek Zirk Sadowski.

He also drew attention to magazine funding and the fact that often before important tax decisions were made, there were articles indicating which judgment should be made, in relation to a person in support, which is not desirable. He also said it was worth being careful not to mention only local issues. – We should be more interested in communicating with European science – The President of the Supreme Administrative Court added and emphasized the importance of translating articles into English.

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Online magazine databases

Participants indicated that the Scopus database does not guarantee the success of Polish magazines. It discriminates against legal publishers. The standard absence in this database is legal science, Magazines that publish articles about the boundaries of law and other fields – economics and criminology – are better off. Simply put, there are many more economists, sociologists, and psychologists than lawyers.

However, prof. From Bialystok University, Elżbieta Kużelewska noted the clear benefits of being in the database of international journals. This is the promotion of authors and institutions, higher “citation rate”, possibility to participate in the ranking, influence of dozens of magazines, etc. As she said, with regard to ministerial registration, it is worth asking the question: Is it better for the ministerial list to have more points and to be an international rule?

a. Stanisوافaw Bernat, editor-in-chief of the European Judicial Review, believes that a standard that permits appearing on a ministerial list of journals, such as receiving grants, eliminates trade magazines that do not benefit from state aid. As a result, the list includes journals that do not meet the quality standards, but not like “Studia Prawnicze”, published by INP PAN, “Balestra” or “Legal Adviser”. But there are “legal studies” published by the Catholic University of Lublin (70 points).

a. Bernat said the law should provide for a legal remedy for challenging these registration decisions.

How to publish magazines

Presented the Director of the Department of Periodicals at Wolters Kluwer Polska sp. Zoo Klaudia Szawłowska Several tips for authors and publishers to achieve recognition and readability of legal journals.

– There is no legal journal without an electronic copy, Available in open access on the site and in online subscription – said Director Szawłowska and noted how important the biographical notes of the authors are, also in the English version. Indexing in national, international and commercial databases, such as LEX, listed on LEX-Premium Magazines, is an important issue.

She also said that publishing houses must also have anti-plagiarism measures to prevent plagiarism. Perhaps, regardless of the decision proposed by the Committee of Legal Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, it would be important for the author who commits the violation to know that he may be punished by his university. Although newsrooms require authors’ statements that they only submitted an article to one magazine, violations do occur. – It appears that an author who makes such a statement in Poland and then publishes an article in a foreign magazine – must obtain prior approval from the publisher – she said.

The online conference was organized by the Kuzminsky University together with the editorial board of the quarterly Kritika Brau and the Interdisciplinary Legal Research Center of the Kuzminsky University.