The paper analyzes the required standards of quantity of published papers for researchers in terms of both reasonability and feasibility. The reasonability is seen as the level of correspondence of the standards with the strategy of supporting Russian science in the global community and feasibility is treated as the physical ability of existing journals to encompass all the proposed quantity of papers. The implications of the paper suggest the need for more thoughtful approach to the instruments of science development: engaging competent elites to the decision-making process, reproduction of the practice of scientific workshops (seminars), the issue of Russian scientific journals with international editorial boards.