QUALITY CONTROL OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS IN ELECTRONIC ENVIRONMENT.

Formal scientific communication through scholarly journals has existed since the 17th century. Peer-review process has also existed since the beginnings of scientific publishing because the editors want to control the quality of the information they publish. Peer-review process played an important role in creating a hierarchy of journals, chiefly relying on the reputation of the reviewers. Electronic publishing has enabled faster and easier scientific communication. Apart from a great number of advantages, one of its serious drawbacks is the possibility of publishing unrefereed and unreliable information. Scientists have devoted many years in trying to find the best ways to control the quality of scientific information on the Internet. Some of the models currently tested in the scholarly journals include: career review, open review, peer commentary and automatic publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]