Zhu Zuoyan, a recently retired deputy head of the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC), has reportedly appealed for funding to make several Chinese journals open access (OA). To boost the country’s scientific journals, he urged to give priority to domestic science publications.

According to Zuoyan, government-funded open access journals could be a breakthrough for science publishing in China. He further stated that OA journals prioritise academic merits over commercial interests. A government-funded open access initiative would lessen or eliminate the cost of publishing, thereby allowing Chinese journals to attract more high-quality papers and improve their impact.

Zhu’s remarks come amidst criticisms that Chinese scientists are publishing more in overseas journals than domestic ones. According to a study by Wang Bingsheng, a leading physicist and editor of the journal Chinese Physics Letters, in 2006, over 80 percent of Chinese physics papers published in journals, listed in the Science Citation Index (SCI), were published in international journals.

Also, it has been observed that science institutions in China often assess the outputs of their scientists using the impact factors of the journals where they publish their papers. Many international journals have higher impact factors than domestic ones.

This trend among Chinese scientists to publish more in overseas journals, some say, may endanger the existence of the 5,000 scientific journals published in China."

Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter.