Scholarly Publishing and CrossRef in China

Yan ShuaiAssociate Editor-in-Chief, Tsinghua University Press

President, Society of China University JournalsVice President, China Periodicals Association

Overview of Publishing in China: Books (I)

In 2011, there are 580 publishing houses, among them, 220 are under central governments (“national”) and 360 under local (provincial) governments (“regional”)

(Data from GAPP)

Overview of Publishing in China: Books (II)

In 2011, 369 523 titles published (207 506 are first editions) (Data from GAPP)

Categories Titles First editions

General books

290 359 180 884

Text books 78 281 25 944

Pictures 883 678

Overview of Publishing in China: Books (III) Titles by Chinese SBN

Marxism and Mao 604 Natural Science, general 827

Philosophy 8 600 Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry

6 997

Social sciences 5 344 Astronomy, Geosciences 2 014Politics, Law 15 669 Biological sciences 2 259Military 1 178 Medical, Health 15 711Economics 30 253 Agricultural sciences 6 305Culture, Science, Education, PE

133 054 Industrial technology 44 539

Linguistics and Litterateur

19 550 Transportation 4 189

Literature 32 317 Aeronautics, Astronautics 338Arts 19 825 Environmental sciences 1 706

History, Geography 14 511 Comprehensive 2 850

Overview of Publishing in China: Periodicals

• In 2011, there are 9 849 periodicals• Among them: Philosophy and Social Sciences 2 516 Science and Technology (STM) 4 920 (Data from GAPP)

These 7 436 journals can be called “scholarly”

Differences between Chinese and the Western Journal Publishing (I)

• Not many journals published by the publishing houses

Sponsor Distribution of STM Journals in China (ISTIC, 2005)

Sponsors (Owned, Edited, and “Published” by)

Quantity Percentage （ %）

Research institutes 1370 28.8

Universities 1216 25. 6

Societies and Associations 1158 24.3

Corporations 196 4.1

Publishing Houses 172 3.6

Others 617 13.0

Non university affiliated hospitals

29 0.6

Differences between Chinese and the Western Journal Publishing (II)

Examination and Approval

General Administration of Press and Publication, GAPP: new titles; new publishers; changes of titles, administration and sponsorship, frequencies, etc.

Administration and Sponsorship (Ownership)

For example: Ministry of Education Universities under the administration of MOE

Localized management

Issuing and Registration of the Permit for Periodical Publishing (after GAPP’s approval);Annual check;Examination and approval of the supplements…

Tasks of the culture reform

• The main tasks are: to encourage cultural innovation, accelerate the building of a network providing cultural services, reshape market players, optimize market systems, improve macro-management and transform administrative functions.

One of the goals of publishing reform

• General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP, www.gapp.gov.cn) proposed some goals for media and publishing reform, of which one is - “strengthen and expand stronger publishing forces, integrate and restructure less strong ones, and shut down the weak ones”.

Journal publishing reform

• Since 2011, the reform of non political newspapers and magazines has required the publishers of STM journals (of course they are not political) to be reformed.

TUP Journal Publishing(founded in March of 2011)

• Currently owns: Journal of Tsinghua University (Science and Technology) (Chinese with English Abstracts) Tsinghua Science and Technology (English) Nano Research (English) Building Simulation (English) Networking Science (English) Journal of Advanced Ceramics (English) Computer Education (Chinese) Science-Technology & Publication (Chinese)

• And TUP as a publisher: Chinese Birds (English) Experimental Technology and Management (Chinese) Physics and Engineering (Chinese) Journal of Automotive Safety and Energy (Chinese)

TUP Journal Publishing will

• To found a journal group with comparatively high academic influence and marketing competence

• To launch some new titles against the prestigious disciplines in Tsinghua University (for example this year’s Journal of Advanced Ceramics and next year’s Friction)

• To be the publisher of some unique journals (like this year’s Chinese Birds)

CrossRef in China

• Status (data from ISTIC and Wanfang)

• Nearly 2 000 journals have DOIs Among which more than 80% join through

Chinese DOIs• Chinese DOIs have surpassed 1 950 980 From journals: 1 936 405; from scientific data:

8 809; others: 5 714

Cases (I): Forestry Studies in China

Since the 1st Issue of 2006, Forestry Studies in China has assigned DOIs to all of its articles, with the cooperation with Springer.

Cases (I): Forestry Studies in China

Ms Li Hui, managing editor of Forestry Studies in China:

By using CrossCheck, we have found the following typical misconducts:

1. Self- (or team) plagiarism

2. Direct copying of Methods section, with new data inserted

3. Uncited extracts

4. Excessive extracts

What are some of the benefits you have seen from participating in CrossRef?

Ms Li Hui: Hits increased Linking expanded

Cases (II): Chinese Birds

CrossRef member

CrossRef Services: Reference Linking CrossCheck

To what types of content are you assigning CrossRef DOIs? How many of each?

• Journal articles 91 articles (DOIs) so far

What are some of the benefits you have seen from participating in CrossRef?

Mr. Cheng Pengjun, managing editor of Chinese Birds:CrossCheck helps us to avoid the negative effects brought by the possible academic misconducts. With the aid of CrossCheck, we have reduced such risks to a minimum level, ensuring the originality of journal articles.

Cases (III)

Ms Zeng Jie, publishing editor for Building Simulation and Networking

Science:• We assign DOI to every published

papers including Research papers, Review papers, Technical Note, Editorial, and Erratum

Ms Zeng Jie:

• Springer uses reference linking (CrossReference) for our journal articles’ references

• Reference linking is very useful for authors, readers, and even publisher

Ms Zeng Jie:

• We use CrossCheck to pre-screen every submission to Building Simulation and Networking Science

• CrossCheck is useful for anti-plagiarism. We rejected some papers because they failed to pass the CrossCheck

• But when using CrossCheck, it’s hard to judge whether it is plagiarism simply by the similarity number. The editor might go through all the paper text and compare them with the checking result. It’s time consuming

Chinese DOI

• Approved by IDF in March 2007, ISTIC and Wanfang had jointly founded DOI RA (Registration Agency), responsible for registration and services of Chinese DOIs

• Since November 2011, RA solely undertaken by ISTIC, Wanfang has been authorized to provide DOI services for its customers

Chinese DOI registration and service system

• Online Chinese DOI registration: www.chinadoi.cn www.doi.org.cn First established in June 2007 Version 3.0 since September 10th 2012

Problems of DOI’s development in China

• According to Mr. Zhang Wan, Wanfang: Small journal “publishers” the promotion of DOI has

to face thousands individual journal sponsors (owners) Lack of technology capacity the requirements of digital publishing are hard to be satisfied Standardization of digital publishing needs to be

enhanced Business model of digital publishing not clear, scholarly

publishing hasn’t established a model of increasing impact and making money on “hits” and ”downloads”

Solutions

• More real journal publishers• More international cooperation• More new technologies• More new standards for writing, editing and

publishing (especially the referencing)

Contact me

• yshuai@yahoo.com

• Thank you very much!