In these considerations, I undertake a polemic with thinking based on the assumption that the value of scientific achievements can be measured with almost mathematical accuracy and give fully reliable point indicators for them. It is not only part of those who introduce the current reform of higher education and science in Poland, but also experts who support them, as well as some representatives of science and natural sciences. This thinking was called point syndrome and expert syndrome. Although it was diagnosed as a manifestation of academic disease a few years ago, it still not only finds its supporters, but also translates into activities, which in some scholars cause astonishment, in others indignation, and still strong opposition in others.

A review is presented of the history of ‘impact factor’ since its introduction in 1955 by Eugene Garfield for assessing scientific periodicals to its present degeneration in the hands of science administrators who enforce its use to classify scientists. Arguments are presented against that procedure. Recently there has been an increase of resistance among scientists and the editors of periodicals who call for replacing bibliometric parameters by peer review assessment of publications.

The multidisciplinary journal Polish Polar Research is bibliometrically analysed as a medium of international scientific communication in light of current citation data from SCI Ex 1996 -2002. Despite its world-wide distribution and distinctive visibility in the polar society, the journal 's two-years impact factor is invariably not very high (below 0.35) because the cited papers are mostly from the 1980s. The increasing participation of foreign (co)authors in the Polish quarterly, paired with the slowly growing number of citing articles in SCI Ex are already promising steps to the immediate information transfer and subsequently improved brief-term journal impact. Citation links with polar investigators from Germany,and also from Great Britain, Spain and the USA are clearly manifested, especially in fields of marine Antarctic ecology and biology. Even if Polish Polar Research may successfully compete with several low-rated journals from different countries indexed in SCI Ex in related categories, its continuing internationalization is urgently required.