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Sylwester Dziki: THE POLISH ACADEMIC AND SPECIALIST PERIODICAL PRESS (ON THE BASIS OF THE SITUATION FROM THE FIRST QUARTER OF 1999)

The article brings up-to-date the report published in Zeszyty Prasoznawcze 1994 nos. 3-4.

In examining thosc generał categorics for the publishing market concerning the publications of interest to us here, we perccive a certain balance which does not howevcr indicate stabilisation, rather indicating stagnation. In the period 1993 to the first quarter of 1998 we observe the disappearance of 310 titles (14.8%), whilc in the period 1994-1999 there came into existence 344 new titles (the most — 106 titles — in 1995).

In the contemporary Polish academic periodieal press there dominate journals devoted to the humanities and social Sciences (ovcr 50%); amongst the newly launched there prevail legał and psychological journals, being morę prevalent than those devoted to the technical Sciences, mathematics, physics and chemistry. Such a ranking of academic disciplines and smali prints inay be taken as a permanent feature of the Polish academic periodieal press.

Despite these tendencies there is an inerease in the number of journals being printed in editions of up to 2500 copies (by 0.5%) and up to 5000 (by 4.8%), and representing the production of professional publishing houses.

The most important role in the editorial movcment is played by institutions of higher education which publish almost a third of journals, chiefly devoted to the humanities. Second place, in relation to publishing activity, is occupied by academic associations (13.3%; in 1993 -15.6%). PAN (The Polish Academy of Sciences with its institutes, committees and commissions) which herc found itself in third place (13.1%) concentrates on the publication of journals from the fields of the humanities and social Sciences (5%; 1993 — 62.2%), the natural Sciences (2.7%, in 1993 — 3.5%) and technical Sciences (2.6%; 1993 — 2.1%).

On the basis of the assembled stock a generał attempt at the preparation of a ranking hierarchy of a part of these journals has been undertaken (primary and universal). Being unable to make use of cxpensive and labour intensive methods (c.g. an analysis of quotations) a simpler classification scheme has been proposed based on formal criteria (1. a model of the journal, 2. the time of its appearance, 3. the language of the publication 4. the distribution of the print abroad, 5. the appearance of the journal in foreign documentary journals). The greatest number of points which a journal could receive is 29. In our ranking the greatest number of points (25) was given to three journals (Acta Astronomica, Acta Protozoologica, Folia Biologica). Among journals with a high print there dominated chiefly naturę, mathematical and technical journals. This is convergent with the common view of the significant role of Polish pure Sciences in the contemporary world. (Authofs summary)

Agnieszka Szymańska: FOR OR AGAINST? DISCUSSION ON THE SUBJECT OF GERMAN REUNIFICATION IN D1EZE1T IN 1989

The year 1989 was to prove revolutionary for a Germany dividcd sińce 1945. The German Democratic Republic through its union with the German Federal Republic bccame the first country of the former Eastcrn Bloc which fully entered into the structures of the European Union (at that time the European Economic Community) and NATO. The old order fell and together with it there disappeared into the realms of history its structural elements such as the Warsaw Pact and Comecon. There appeared a chance for the establishing and expansion of European structures and NATO.

Die Zcit, for many years one of the biggest weeklies and opinion forming press titles, maintained in 1989 in relation to rcunification, something so important for Germans, a position extremely caution and fuli of reservation. The article represents an attempt to understand the attitude o i Die Zeit and also to ring eloser the course of the emotional discussion on the subject of rcunification within the pages of the weekly during 1989 — that year fuli of revolutionary events-.

Die Zeit occupied in 1989 a rather uniform attitude towards the question of German unity. Out of the 46 articles whose contents were directed linked to the subject of reunification a mere six