On some ethical problems of numerical evaluation of scientific activity

This article analyzes the current trend to evaluate the activities of scientists and teachers relying on numerical indicators and calculated results solely. The article also examines the variety of tendencies that emerge as a response to this trend including those of them which are ethically questionable. The article gives a brief overview of pred-atory publication practices, the spread of which relates to the trend to evaluate mathematically the effectiveness of scientific activity. It is also shown that the appropriate struggle against numerical cheating often endangers respectable authors, and publishers and specialists in scientometrics today more and more often assume in controversial situations that a scientist is unprincipled. Further mathematical amplification of scientometric systems only aggravates the existing prob-lems, and the struggle for numerical indicators assimilates the world of science to the world of computer games.