Leave a Comment
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Spotlight Interview: Dr. Mingfang Lu on China's Evolving Academic Publishing Landscape
As China's role in global research continues to expand, questions about visibility, quality, and innovation in its scholarly publishing sector have gained international attention. To better understand the developments shaping China's research publishing ecosystem, we spoke with Dr. Mingfang Lu; Vice President of the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE) and Executive President of AiScholar China.
Dr. Lu brings decades of experience at the intersection of Chinese and international publishing, offering a uniquely informed perspective on the strategic, institutional, and technological shifts underway. In this special interview, he shares key insights into how Chinese research publishing has evolvedand where it’s headed next.
Q1: China has seen significant growth in research output over the last decade. What have been the key national or institutional strategies driving this expansion?
Since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy over four and a half decades ago, China has placed a strong emphasis on the development of science and technology, recognizing it as a key driver of economic and social progress. The government has consistently increased its investment in this sector year after year. In particular, since the start of the 21st century, R&D has received even more attention and budgetary support. Today, China's annual R&D spending exceeds 2.4% of its GDP—a major global benchmark for R&D strength.
As a result of strong policy support and sustained government funding, China has experienced a significant surge in research output, as evidenced by its now-leading position in global publication volume. Chinese institutions have also introduced their own policies and incentive mechanisms to encourage faculty and graduate students to publish more. However, while quantity has grown, there is a national emphasis on improving research quality, with a particular focus on fostering groundbreaking innovations.
Q2: From your experience working with both state-backed and private publishing entities, how do you see their roles evolving in terms of building international visibility and credibility?
I once served as the Editor-in-Chief in China for a leading international learned society physics publisher from 2002 to 2017. During that time, I had extensive collaboration with major physics journals in the country, all of which were state-backed, though I also observed the rise of private publishers.
Traditionally, China’s STM journal publishing has been dominated by state-backed entities, which produce officially registered (or CN-registered) journals under strict local regulations. These entities benefit from government funding and policy support. Most are affiliated with institutions like the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) or public universities, and tend to operate on a small, non-profit basis—though there are exceptions, such as Science Press and Higher Education Press, which have scaled operations and commercial viability.
To gain international visibility, Chinese journals often collaborate with global publishers. Under the traditional subscription model, Chinese journals are typically bundled with their international counterparts for worldwide distribution to leading institutions. These partnerships also help raise editorial standards and provide English language support, facilitating the recruitment of international editorial board members and authors. Many Chinese journals have improved their impact factors and global reputation through such collaborations, benefiting both parties.
Private STM publishers have only begun to emerge in the past 10–20 years, largely driven by the open access movement. Without official approval to publish CN-registered journals, most private publishers operate with ISSN-registered journals only and are treated as foreign entities despite being based in China. This status excludes them from local policy support, but also frees them from local regulatory oversight. As a result, their international visibility remains limited.
Q3: What are the current challenges Chinese journals face in meeting global publishing standards, especially regarding peer review, quality control, and indexing?
According to the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) (2024), by the end of 2023, China had 5,211 STM journals, with 4,556 published in Chinese and fewer than 600 in English or bilingual formats. Major progress has been made since the launch of the CAST Action Plan for Excellent STM Journals in 2019, but several challenges remain:
- First, international journals are still the top choice for Chinese researchers, especially for high-quality work. In 2023, Chinese authors published 728,700 SCI-indexed papers, about 1/3 of the global total, while Chinese SCI journals published only 33,400—less than 5% of that.
- Second, Chinese journals rarely receive submissions from leading global research regions, and most citations are from domestic sources, even for high-impact journals.
- Third, editorial diversity is limited, with a high proportion of Chinese board members and referees, restricting global networking and visibility. English proficiency among staff, referees, and authors also requires improvement. Some journals even require peer review reports to be written in Chinese, regardless of the manuscript’s language.
The CAST Action Plan is a step in the right direction and could help overcome these challenges.
Q4: How do international collaborations and partnerships with global publishers typically work in China? What are the opportunities, and what misunderstandings often arise?
Collaborations with global publishers are crucial for increasing the visibility of Chinese journals. Typically, editorial processes remain with the Chinese side, while the international publisher handles global sales and marketing. These journals are hosted alongside the international publisher’s titles, often bundled for distribution to major institutions.
This model was especially important during the dominance of subscription-based publishing. In the open access era, however, success relies more on attracting quality submissions and increasing usage and citations. International partnerships provide new avenues for growth through global networks and enhanced discoverability.
Q5: How is the integration of technology, particularly AI and digital platforms, changing editorial workflows and publishing strategies in China?
Chinese journals began digitalizing editorial and peer review processes over 20 years ago. Today, both state-backed and private journals operate on professional digital platforms, many of which are integrated with tools for plagiarism detection and research integrity checks.
Major publishers have developed their own systems, while smaller publishers either rely on their international partners’ platforms or operate independently with some external support. Generative AI is expected to further enhance workflows, from content curation and peer review to integrity verification and identifying AI misuse.
Q6: Finally, what advice would you give to global publishers or editors who wish to engage meaningfully with the Chinese academic publishing market?
Chinese journals need to increase international submissions, especially from major research regions, and boost usage and citations from global researchers. Global publishers can support this by:
- Recruiting leading international researchers to join Chinese journals’ editorial boards.
- Promoting Chinese journals to their international networks and encouraging high-quality submissions.
These efforts can significantly improve the global standing of Chinese STM journals. While at the same time, global publishers can achieve higher market shares both in content and sales and presence in China, and attract more quality submissions to their own titles from the region.
Reference
China Association for Science and Technology (CAST). (2024, December 20). Chinese scientific journals gain global influence, reports annual Blue Book.
https://english.cast.org.cn/xkx/News/art/2024/art_133430577.html
Keywords
China academic publishing ACSE interview AiScholar Chinese journals STM publishing in China global visibility research policy peer review standards CAST editorial diversity international collaboration generative AI in publishing scholarly communication open access publishing partnerships science and technology
