Countdown to 1 day丨Wei Junmin: Create a full-process digital publishing platform with independent property rights

As an important part of the Beijing Academic Week of the 26th Annual Conference of the China Association for Science and Technology, the 19th China Science and Technology Periodicals Development Forum will be held in Beijing on the 9th.

A few days ago, Wei Junmin, general manager and editor-in-chief of Chinese Medical Journal Co., Ltd., vice chairman and secretary general of the Chinese Society of Science and Technology Journal Editors, was interviewed by Xinhuanet on issues such as strengthening the construction of a strong country in scientific and technological journals and promoting the intensive and high-quality development of medical journals.

Xinhuanet: Cultivating world-class scientific and technological journals is an important support for building a world scientific and technological power, how do you think we should strengthen the construction of a scientific and technological journal power, and continuously promote the intensive and high-quality development of medical journals?

Wei Junmin: At present, the clustering, collectivization and internationalization of periodicals have become the mainstream trend of the development of scientific and technological journals in the world, and it is also an important way for the periodical industry to become bigger and stronger. The resources of scientific and technological journals in mainland China are relatively scattered, and most of them are published and disseminated by borrowing ships to go to sea, borrowing other people's platforms. If we want to move forward to become a powerful country in scientific and technological journals, we should move from borrowing ships to go to sea by shipbuilding, intensiveize the scattered journal publishing work, realize the centralization of manuscript collection, editing, review and production, and then achieve the centralization of data, communication, operation and users, realize the integrated layout of online and offline, and build a complete digital publishing ecological chain.

As a pilot unit of the clustering of China's Science and Technology Periodicals Excellence Action Plan, relying on the Key Laboratory of Science and Technology and Standards of the Publishing Industry of the National Press and Publication Administration - the Key Laboratory of Medical Journal Knowledge Mining and Service, our agency adopts international advanced technology and combines the actual situation of Chinese periodical publishing, constantly explores, improves and sublimates the original journal clustered digital publishing software and hardware, and builds a digital publishing and knowledge service platform based on the journal group in the medical professional field. The intelligent hub of integrated publishing in all aspects of communication enables data-driven refined operation, shortens the time lag of manuscript publication, attracts the return of high-quality manuscripts, improves the academic quality of journals, and greatly improves the ability of Chinese medical science and technology journals to participate in the global science communication system and integrate into the world science and technology journal exchange ecosystem, so that the internationalization of the content published in domestic science and technology journals, as well as the international visibility and influence of the content published in domestic science and technology journals are gradually improved.

Xinhuanet: Can you talk about how medical journals can deepen the reform of the scientific and technological journal system, and talk about the importance of the transformation of traditional scientific and technological publishing houses to knowledge services?

Wei Junmin: After a long period of construction, our society has formed a journal cluster with a certain scale, brand and academic influence, but like other scientific and technological journals in mainland China, there is also the problem of decentralized operation with the editorial department as a unit, and the degree of intensification of journals has not yet reached the ideal state. In the face of the development trend in the field of scientific and technological journal publishing, in accordance with the requirements of the state for the reform of the publishing system, our society has steadily and orderly promoted the intensive process of a series of journals in accordance with the general idea of the reform of the journal management system with "separation of management and management" as the core and the reform of the journal publishing mechanism with "separation of editing and publishing operation" as the core of the Chinese Medical Association.

In 2018, the video magazine "Chinese Journal of Cardiovascular Diseases (Online Edition)" founded by our company reflects the major progress of clinical and scientific research in cardiovascular diseases in mainland China by means of audio and video, and promotes academic exchanges in cardiovascular diseases at home and abroad. Since its inception, it has been highly recognized and loved by the majority of readers. At present, our society has built a comprehensive financial media publishing and publishing platform with WeChat public account matrix, Chinese Medical Journal Network, Chinese Medical Journal APP, WeChat video account, Douyin, etc., integrated a series of journal resources, and built a comprehensive and integrated publishing service model for authors and customers.

The value of high-quality content requires advanced communication methods to be presented. After more than 9 years of continuous promotion, relying on the construction of digital publishing platform, our society has continuously explored new publishing models to promote the high-quality development of series of journals. R&D journal digital middle platform, empower data-driven refined operation, and build a digital publishing and knowledge service platform based on the journal group in the medical professional field. We have continuously launched vertical knowledge service products for professional users such as institutions, individuals, and third-party platforms, including the Chinese Medical Journal Full-text Database, the Chinese Medical Journal APP, the Chinese Medical Association Journal Cloud Resource Service System (SDK Service), the Chinese Medical Knowledge Base, and the Distance Continuing Education Platform, so as to improve the knowledge service capabilities of readers and authors.

Xinhuanet: You just mentioned the transformation of traditional science and technology publishing houses, do you think the mainland needs to build a full-process digital publishing platform with independent intellectual property rights? How to encourage major medical research results to be published and developed in mainland journals and platforms, so that more first-class journals can stand out?

Wei Junmin: The construction of technology and platform is an important barrier restricting China's scientific and technological journals from going global, and it is also the only way to build first-class journals. In the current situation of international cooperation facing many uncertainties, it is particularly important to build a full-process digital publishing platform with independent property rights.

In 2020, with the help of international mainstream technology, our agency successfully built MedNexus, an independently operated English journal publishing and dissemination platform, through the model of "independent design + commissioned shipbuilding". The platform has been smoothly connected with international search engines, publishing standardization organizations, important academic index databases, etc., and its readers have covered more than 200 countries and regions around the world, and the platform has been running stably with more than 3.26 million visits. At present, the platform has carried more than 43,000 papers from 24 series of English journals, which are displayed through open access, and has become an important channel for the external dissemination of excellent papers in the Chinese series of Chinese journals of the Chinese Medical Association.

Xinhuanet: What does it mean for mainland science and technology journals to enter the world-class phalanx? How to "go global" in a sustainable way and let Chinese journals, especially medical journals, be fully present on the international stage?

Wei Junmin: In June 2024, Clarivate Analytics released a journal citation report. Mainland journals are performing well, ranking first in the world in 19 journal disciplines, and more and more Chinese scientific and technological journals are among the world's first-class journal phalanx, which also means that there will be more outstanding scientific research achievements around the world to use Chinese scientific and technological journals as the first platform. In this situation, I believe that the following points must be done well in order to promote the successful "going out" of China's scientific and technological journals, play a more important role in international scientific research and academic exchanges, and support the mainland to build a major scientific center and innovation highland in the world.

First, we should break the concept of "SCI first", let high-quality papers be published on the land of the motherland, and enhance the international influence and dissemination of China's excellent scientific and technological journals.

Second, it is necessary to accelerate the cultivation of a number of high-quality scientific and technological journals and powerful publishing institutions, accelerate the establishment of new English journals with a high starting point in key construction and emerging interdisciplinary fields, with flagship journals as the core, derivative journals as the flanks, and digital publishing platforms as the guarantee, to form an "aircraft carrier" cluster of scientific and technological journals, seize the new territory of scientific and technological innovation, grasp the right to launch international innovative scientific research achievements, and strive to occupy a dominant position in the international academic exchange system.

The third is to change from "borrowing ships to go to sea" and "chartering ships to go to sea" to "building ships to go to sea", strengthen the self-service platform and self-communication capacity building, and improve the internationalization of the platform and the international visibility of the journal content. Let the communication channels and marketing channels go out, and promote the mainland science and technology journals to "go global" and display them on the international stage in an all-round way.

Xinhuanet: What do you think should be done to cultivate first-class scientific and technological journals (medical journals)?

Wei Junmin: To cultivate first-class scientific and technological journals, it is still necessary to continue to strengthen the construction of management systems, evaluation systems and platforms.

First, the management system. Publication management policies play a key role in the development of journals. In 2019 and 2021, the "Opinions on Deepening Reform and Cultivating World-class Scientific and Technological Journals" and "Opinions on Promoting the Prosperity and Development of Academic Journals" were promulgated, which pointed out the direction for the further development and prosperity of China's scientific and technological journals, and also highlighted the important role of the construction of scientific and technological journals in enhancing the country's scientific and technological competitiveness and cultural soft power. In recent years, the rapid development of scientific and technological innovation in mainland China, the growth of scientific research output year by year, international publishing institutions are speeding up the establishment of new journals, seizing the new territory of scientific and technological innovation, we need to face up to the gap between China's scientific and technological journals and internationally renowned journals, increase the investment and support of policies, projects, funds and other elements, accelerate the transformation and upgrading of journal publishing and industrial reform, create a relaxed development environment, and make efforts in internationalization, digitalization and marketization.

The second is the evaluation system. In recent years, the mainland has issued a number of guiding documents to promote the rapid development of China's scientific and technological journals, but it is necessary to increase the publicity of relevant policies and the supervision and inspection of their application in practical work, so as to completely break the concept of "SCI first". To build a world-class scientific and technological journal, we must first let high-quality papers be published on the land of the motherland, which is not only the mission of scientists with family and country feelings, but also the key direction of our scientific and technological journal people, and there is a long way to go.

The third is platform construction. The publishing industry in mainland China is gradually transforming from traditional publishing to digital publishing, and the transformation is accelerating. Only by building an integrated digital publishing service platform, intensifying the scattered journal publishing work, realizing the centralization of manuscript collection, editing, review, and production, and then achieving the centralization of data, communication, operation and users, changing the business philosophy of digital transformation, laying a solid foundation for digital transformation, and realizing the integrated layout of online and offline, can we build a complete digital publishing ecological chain and accelerate the construction of first-class scientific and technological journals in mainland China. (Xinhuanet)