COVID-19 research published in Chinese scientific journals has played a key role in the nation's fight against the disease, but the nation's overall scientific publishing industry still needs more talent, resources, and international cooperation to be competitive on the world stage, Chinese experts have said.

Last month, President Xi Jinping said China will need to create first-class academic journals and academic platforms. This was the first time Xi highlighted these subjects in his speeches, which showcased the significance of these topics for the country.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese scientists have contributed greatly to the treasure trove of knowledge about the illness by publishing their insights at home and abroad, said Zhang Boli, president of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

As of August, one of the world's premiere medical journals, the Lancet, had published 188 papers on COVID-19, 41 of which were written by Chinese authors, said Yang Wei, former director of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. These papers from China accounted for 9,600 out of the 11,000 citations of all the COVID-19 papers published by the journal at the time, he added.

In journals published domestically, such as the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, scientists shared their knowledge on how TCM could be used to help alleviate COVID-19 symptoms and improve rates of successful treatment, especially for severely ill patients, Zhang said.

For example, Zhang said they discovered that using ginseng could help improve a severely ill patient's blood oxygen level. Xuebijing, a TCM compound injection, was found to be a safer alternative to steroids to quell a cytokine storm, a potentially fatal condition in which the immune system goes into overdrive and attacks the infection and healthy cells indiscriminately.

TCM practitioners also proposed studying the rate at which mild cases were turning into serious cases as a key clinical indicator. This advice was later accepted by the World Health Organization and doctors worldwide, Zhang said.

However, Zhang said it typically takes months for a study to be published in foreign journals. Moreover, foreign publishers are often reluctant to accept and publish manuscripts on TCM, meaning the global scientific community is less familiar with related research topics, he said.

"This is why China needs to create its own world-class academic journals to get our knowledge out," he said, adding that China's scientific publishing industry will need to enhance its global outreach and collaboration.

Lyu Zhaoping, member of the Leading Party Members' Group of the China Association for Science and Technology, said scientific journals are crucial for sharing scientific thoughts and discoveries that are instrumental in spearheading scientific development and passing down knowledge to future generations.

By 2035, China aims to become a global front-runner in scientific publishing with its own world-class scientific journals and publishers, according to a document issued by the association along with other government ministries last year.

More influence

"This will allow China to have a greater say in scientific development and evaluation, thus transforming the nation into a key hub for global academic exchanges," Lyu said.

China had a total of 4,958 scientific journals in circulation by the end of last year, 89 percent of which were published in Chinese, according to the 2020 blue book released last month on the development of the nation's scientific journals.

Of those scientific journals, 1,556 were for basic sciences, 1,135 for medical sciences, and 2,267 for technological sciences. Some of China's most prestigious journals included Cell Research, National Science Review, and Light: Science & Applications, with impact factors last year of 20.5, 16.7, and 13.7, respectively.

Impact factor is an index that shows the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It is a commonly used indicator to measure the importance and prestige of a journal.

But a notable gap was evident when these Chinese journals are compared to some of the world's best, such as Nature, Science and Cell, which had impact factors last year of 42.8, 41.8, and 38.6, respectively.

China also is significantly behind other scientific publishing powerhouses, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, both in the number of journals and their prestige. Last year, the US had 1,029 journals and the UK had 731 journals in the top 25 percent of journals in their field, according to global analytical firm Clarivate Analytics. China had only 81.

Yuan Yaxiang, president of the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, said the internationalization of Chinese scientific journals is key for improving the nation's scientific soft power, but that is an arduous task.

The biggest challenge is the large outflow of high-quality Chinese research papers to foreign journals, he said. "How can we convince foreign peers to publish in China's scientific journals if our journals can't even host the best work by Chinese authors."

Yuan said having a prestigious, capable and internationalized editorial board is imperative for a journal's success, but Chinese journals should also uphold their own identity and provide more unique features and services, such as encouraging top Chinese universities to publish their best work in their own journals.

Push the envelope

Meanwhile, the review process and management of Chinese scientific journals should meet the international standards of practice. This will make it easier for scientists from around the world to publish in China and have their work validated and accepted by peers, he said.

Qian Xuhong, president of East China Normal University, said a good scientific journal should not just be a platform for disseminating quality research. Its editorial board should lead global research by selecting and publishing manuscripts that can push the envelope of science.

"Chinese journals should not publish for the sake of publishing. They should serve the bigger goal of building a system of knowledge with Chinese characteristics that can contribute to the world," he said.

Cao Jianlin, former vice-minister of science and technology and the editor-in-chief for Light: Science & Applications, said China's scientific journals can improve substantially by following the best practices of top publications in their respective fields, such as how his journal was using the journal Nature Photonics as a point of reference.

Apart from publishing high-quality research, Nature Photonics also has a variety of columns, features, and nonacademic articles that are very influential in the field, Cao said. "This is something Chinese journals need to catch up."