Opportunities and challenges for China’s scientific journal publishing in the new era

Abstract

<p indent="0mm">With the rapid growth of scientific research input and output in China, academic journals have attracted increasing attention as the records and communication of scientific research achievements. Combining literature research and discussion from the forum sponsored by the academic divisions of Chinese Academy of Sciences on Frontiers in Science and Technology with the theme of “scientific publishing in the new era”, this paper analyzes the current situation of China’s scientific journal publishing and the opportunities and challenges it faces, and puts forward suggestions and solutions for scientific journal development in China. Based on the analysis of the current situation and development trend of international scientific publishing, this paper reviews the scientific journal publishing in the open science environment from aspects of open access publishing of journals and papers, open peer review, open data, preprint platforms, and journal business models. It also discusses how new technologies promote the innovation and development of scientific publishing from aspects of digital publishing and communication, big data, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and interaction and integration based on various new technologies and media. In addition, this paper also briefly introduces the prediction by the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers for the development trend of academic publishing industry in the next <sc>3–5 years</sc> with the themes of “trust &amp; integrity”, “entering the AI era—creative humans &amp; smart machines”, “diversity in a multi-user environment”, “focus on the user—connect the dots”, and “let’s go upstream—seeking the source of trust and truth” from 2017 to 2021. This paper holds that compared with world-class scientific journals, China’s scientific journals lag behind in the ability to attract high-level research results, prevention and treatment of academic misconduct, brand reputation, and international influence. To rank among the world’s first-class scientific journals, China’s scientific journals must be in line with international standards in dealing with scientific research integrity, comply with the norms of international journals on academic integrity and publishing ethics, and improve their ability to deal with academic misconduct. Journal publishers should cooperate with the management department and the academic community to form an organic whole and jointly build a healthy academic ecosystem. With the rapid development of scientific research in China and a friendly publishing environment supported by policies to promote world-class journals, China’s scientific journals are facing unprecedented development opportunities. This paper puts forward suggestions and solutions for the development of China’s scientific journals in the new era as follows: (1) Pay attention to the development trend of open science and integrate into the development environment of open science; (2) strengthen international cooperation and seek continuous development in the cooperation; (3) innovate the concept of scientific publishing service and expand new publishing technologies and methods; (4) perfect the standards for publishing ethics and enhance the ability to deal with academic misconduct; (5) build high-level talent teams for scientific publishing and improve the scientific literacy of science communicators; (6) seek win-win social and market benefits and explore the sustainable model for scientific journal publishing in China.