This paper results from work in a broader research project concerning the processes of commodification which science is going through in the last decades. The part of the project where the paper fits in deals with the processes of corporatization of science, which involve, as their main component, the introduction of quantitative productivist methods of evaluation of scientific practices. The aim of the paper is to complement the critique of those forms of evaluation with the suggestion of alternative forms, inspired by the conception, due to W. Hagstrom, of gift giving as an organizing principle in science. The exposition is divided into five sections: the first one deals with gift giving in general or, in other words, gift giving as an organizing principle in society; the second, with gift giving as an organizing principle in science; in the third section an argument is presented in favour of the gift giving conception, based on its explanatory power; the fourth deals with the proliferation of frauds in science; and in the fifth a conceptual structure is suggested as the foundation for the transition from the quantitative to the qualitative in academic methods of evaluation. The conclusion consists in some general remarks, proposed as guidelines for the movement in favour of more sensible forms of organizing scientific practices.
Gift giving; Commodification; Corporatization; Evaluation; Ethos; Frauds; Neoliberalism; Mauss; Hagstrom; Merton