China plans sweeping makeover of academic journals to raise the profile and influence of domestic scientific research

China plans a sweeping makeover of mainland academic journals, turning them into world-class organs similar to British weekly Nature and peer-reviewed US publication Science, to raise the profile and influence of domestic scientific research, local authorities said in Beijing.

The initiative was announced at a press conference co-hosted by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), a government-affiliated organisation that serves local scientists, to follow up on the country’s “journal of excellence plan” drawn up in 2019. The group said that a majority of the country’s scientific papers continue to be published in Western academic journals, while China and the US intensify their rivalry in next-generation technologies.