Purpose-oriented approach to the reader’s assessment of the quality of research papers

Exponential growth of scientific publications brings forth the need to search for criteria of quality assessment. Most of modern scientometric tools are quantitative, and those few qualitative indicators are still not popular in the scientific community. This paper is an attempt to identify the attributes of a credible academic paper and provides a quality assessment approach that the reader could use searching for scientific information. To achieve the purpose of the study, the authors carry out the following steps: they analyze the modern context of the quality assessment of scientific content, systematize the conditions that facilitate the flow of poor quality scientific knowledge according to social actors of scientific communication, define a unified foundation for the assessment of the general quality of scientific publication and build a model of the production of scientific knowledge taking into account the responsibility of the parties generating this knowledge. Based on the markers the authors design an algorithm which the reader can use to sort the scientific information. This algorithm is helpful not only for researchers but also for academic journal experts dealing with peer review.