The low quality of articles submitted to scientific journals and the artifices used for publishing - resulting from an academic evaluation policy based on the number of published papers, weighted by the journal's score - is a growing concern among editors and researchers. This article discusses the notion of 'productivism' and the causal relation established between the pressure to publish and the paper quality, arguing that the problem, most of the times, is directly related to the very scientific production process. Issues regarding evaluation and the ethical principles involved in preparing and submitting papers are also discussed. It is suggested reading the documents approved on the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, which took place in Singapore, in 2010 - published here - which define international standards for journal editors and authors, and play an important role in researchers' training.
scientific articles; ethics; quality; evaluation