Journal Publishing in China: Experience, Lesson, and Prospect

Academic research has gained new momentum in China with the rapid development of journal publishing, while government R&D investment has also increased. Several initiatives in academic publishing have been launched in recent years by the Chinese Government, societies and funding organizations. The study presents five main aspects of journals: Evolution, dynamics, experience, lessons and prospects, to set a valuable example and nurture their development in other Asian countries. The number of academic journals in China stands at more than 6,500, of which 6,069 have Chinese titles and abstracts, making language one of the major barriers to their growth. Additionally, the imbalance of development in various regions adds to the situation. China published more scientific articles than the USA and the UN combined in 2017 and 2019, but the majority are in Chinese. There is a sharp increase trend in journal impact factors in some top-profile journals in China, despite the lower average citations per article than in the USA. Among all those effective marketing tools, TrendMD has developed a high performance-to-price ratio over the years. The reason is TrendMD's collaboration with over 6,000 academic journals and its free widgets that have helped scholarly publishers increase readership, enhance international reputations, drive impact factors and even increase sales.