Journals are a platform for knowledge dissemination, and academic journals are a window to report the latest scientific and technological achievements. So, what are the important criteria for measuring the level of academic journals? I think there are two aspects: timeliness and accuracy. Then there's the "high level" -- something that truly represents the latest in a field of technology.

In the past 30 years, most of my country's important scientific research achievements were first published in foreign journals, and the international academic influence of Chinese science and technology journals was generally weak. Academic "private land" is becoming increasingly barren, and for China, which is committed to building a scientific and technological power, it is a practical problem that needs to be solved urgently.

The impact factor cannot be used to measure the quality of the paper rudely

When it comes to academic journals, we have to mention the impact factor of the journal. Now, everyone pays special attention to the impact factor. How do you view the phenomenon of "Influencer Only Theory"? There are many reasons behind this.

First of all, scientific and technological journals are mixed. In a sense, the impact factor can certainly represent the level of an academic journal. Previously, people paid more attention to the professionalism and relevance of journals, but now they pay more attention to their impact factors.

I have a side that I agree with, and a side that I don't fully agree with or even disagree with at all.

The impact factor of a journal is related to its academic status and historical accumulation. Some well-known journals have a long history, in this case, its impact factor is not important - it is widely recognized that it is very powerful; while the impact factor of some journals, especially new journals, although high, may not really reflect it. actual level.

why? The impact factor is a mathematical problem and an internationally accepted journal evaluation index. According to the calculation method, the impact factor is the total number of citations (numerator) of papers published in a journal in the previous two years divided by the total number of papers published in the journal in those two years (denominator). If this denominator is very small, the impact factor will of course be high. Then, in this sense, the impact factor of journals cannot be overemphasized and rendered.

High-quality papers are not simply defined by impact factors. I often tell students and team members that your work is published in a better journal, such as Nature, which of course means that it is a good article, but it does not necessarily mean that it is a good job. Likewise, if you publish an article in a journal with a low impact factor, it's not necessarily a bad job. In my opinion, the quality of journals is actually relative.

The internationalization of Chinese journals is not about publishing more than a few English articles

Compared with the number of articles published by Chinese authors, the number of outstanding scientific and technological journals in China is far from enough.

In 2020, the number of papers published in Chinese SCI (Science Citation Index) journals accounted for 1.45% of the total number of SCI papers in the world, while the number of SCI papers published by Chinese authors accounted for 25.85% of the total number of SCI papers in the world during the same period.

Domestic academic journals are mainly divided into two categories: domestic English journals and Chinese journals. So, how can domestic academic journals speed up the improvement of their publication level?

When running an English-language journal in China, we should improve the quality of the journal as much as possible to attract more excellent manuscript sources. If the English-language journals run by China only publish articles of Chinese people, then only Chinese-language journals are required, so it must attract excellent manuscript sources from all over the world. How to attract submissions? It is very important that journals have accumulation and a reputation that everyone can recognize.

In this sense, I think some Chinese science and technology journals have done quite well in recent years. This has a lot to do with our increased attention and increased funding.

Now, more and more people of insight believe that it is necessary to run Chinese journals well, because only in Chinese can we really introduce and disseminate our scientific research results, so that Chinese people can understand the best and most cutting-edge scientific research progress at the first time. It is a very important tool for us to improve the level of scientific research, and it is also an important window for dissemination, so it must be done well.

But for the internationalization of Chinese journals, we must not go astray. A considerable number of Chinese journals, including the Journal of Physical Chemistry, which I am in charge of, often say, "Can we absorb more English articles in order to improve the impact factor?" I don't agree with this. It's better to run an English journal. The objects and goals of the two are different.

At the same time, there is also a situation that there are many Chinese authors around the world, including Chinese students. If it can attract their attention and attract them to submit manuscripts, this can also be regarded as a starting point for accelerating the internationalization of Chinese scientific journals. I think this is a technical operation.

On the other hand, if one unilaterally pursues internationalization and changes its practice in order to improve the impact factor, or even the original Chinese journals become English journals, I think this is not the trend of internationalization of Chinese journals.

Running a journal requires investment and accumulation

In 2013, Nano Research (English version) established an international nano research award. This award is nominated by the members of the editorial board of Nano Research (English version) and selected by the award committee to recognize outstanding scientists who have made significant contributions to the field of nano research and further promoted the development of nano science. At present, the award has developed into one of the major awards in the field of international nanotechnology and has won the attention of the academic community.

I think this is also a good attempt and exploration, and it is a very important approach for domestic journals to expand their international influence.

Of course, we must also increase support for domestic publications. In September 2019, the China Association for Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Press and Publication Administration, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Engineering jointly launched the implementation of the "China Science and Technology Journal Excellence Action Plan", which has launched my country's scientific and technological periodicals so far. The major support projects with the greatest intensity, the most funds and the widest scope are implemented. This action plan means more attention and investment at the government level, which of course is good.

Running a journal requires investment. If the pay of the publishers gets better and better, or if we can attract the best publishers - just like attracting excellent scientists, I believe that the development of domestic journals will be better.

(The original title "Internationalization of domestic academic journals is not English culture", the author Liu Zhongfan is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the dean of the Beijing Graphene Research Institute, organized by Zhao Guangli, a reporter from China Science News.)