SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH CROSSROADS. WHICH WAY TO GO?

Scientific Research (SciRes) can and should be a platform for mankind?s progress by tackling previously unsolved problems and new ones arising each day. However, for SciRes to succeed in this role, it must be properly aimed. This paper presents a systematic analysis of the diverging crossroads SciRes has reached, discusses the right way to go at each in order to pursue quality and examines the implications of taking the wrong way in each case. The most critical crossroads or dilemmas for SciRes at present demand choosing between true or only apparent innovation; publication or usefulness; opacity or transparency; isolation or interdisciplinarity; social responsibility or no social commitment and proper or spurious assessment of research. The paper ends with a summative discussion of the right and wrong ways that can be taken at SciRes crossroads now and in the future.