Journal evaluation is one of the ways to promote the scientific, rational and ethical academic evaluation in China. The quantitative evaluation of periodicals is the core periodical evaluation system under the framework of bibliometrics. According to the law of centralization and decentralization, this system constructs a set of evaluation indexes of influencing factors,while the qualitative evaluation is dominated by peer review, which is based on the subjective evaluation and scoring of experts, and its methods and system design are not clear enough. At present, the evaluation system of liberal journals is still in the transition from “simple quantitative” evaluation to “comprehensive evaluation”. It is faced with multiple dilemmas, such as the authority of the evaluation subject, the scientification of the evaluation methods, and the paradox of the publicity of the evaluation. An introspection of the current evaluation system from the angle of academic assessment prompts us to examine whether the evaluation is scientific, public and socialized. We need to realize the return from instrumental rationality to value rationality in the principle of evaluation, construct a comprehensive method system of quantitative and qualitative evaluation, gather all stakeholders of journal development, and establish a twoway communication platform and shared value system of evaluation. Professional evaluation institutions should undertake the academic responsibility and mission of journal evaluation, and explore the construction of a scientific, reasonable, open and transparent journal evaluation system including evaluation value, theory, methods, index system and institutional mechanism.