2. What is ?
The international association for nonprofit
publishers and those who work with them
– 341 member organisations in 37 countries (3 in China)
– Publishing nearly 10,000 journals (~40% of world
output)
• Advocacy
– often backed by research
• Professional development
– training, seminars and other events
• Good practice guidelines
• Information
– journal, website, newsletter, listservs, reports
and other publications
• Collaboration
– ALPSP Learned Journals Collection
3. China - background
• A growing economy
– Over 9% annual growth in GDP (USA = 3-4%)
– Projected by Price Waterhouse Cooper to be about 95%
of the size of the US economy at market exchange rates
by 2050 (40% larger at purchasing price parity)
• Understanding of linkage between R&D and
economic success
– Example of Japan
• Growing R&D expenditure
– China is expected to increase its share of global
R&D spending from 11.8% in 2004 to 12.8% in
2005 and 13.6% in 2006
– US share is expected to decrease from 32.7% in
2004 to 32% in 2005 and 31.3 % in 2006
• Growing output of research papers
– 1% of world total in 1988, 1.7% in 1996, 4.2%
in 2003
– US 38.1% - 34% - 30.3%
4. Top 10 producers of science &
engineering articles 1988-2003
250000 USA
200000 USSR
Japan
150000 UK
100000 Germany
France
50000 China
Canada
0
Italy
88
90
92
94
96
98
00
02
Spain
19
19
19
19
19
19
20
20
5. Where should Chinese researchers publish?
• Benefits of publishing in Western journals
– Authors encouraged to publish in highly cited
international journals
• Chinese authors may need extra help
– English language
– Conventions of publication
• Where does this help come from?
– Courses in China (EASE, Charlesworth)
– Links with Western publishers
6. What about Chinese scholarly journals?
• Statistics
– c. 9000 Scholarly Journals, of which c. 4750
in STM
• 26% from universities, 24% from societies and
associations, 29% from research institutes, 21% from
government departments, independent publishers and
others
– <200 in English
– 76 in Journal Citation Reports (mostly
English-language)
• Government policy (being developed)
– Financial support for top journals to
help them reach world standard
7. Boosting quality of Chinese journals
• Chinese publishers may need extra help
– Editorial, production, marketing, copyright,
general business skills
• Where does this help come from?
– Western publishers
– Western training providers (Oxford Brookes,
ALPSP)
– ALPSP/CAS training programme
8. Structure of Chinese Scholarly Publishing
Chinese
Government
General
Chinese Association Ministry of Science Ministry of
Chinese Academy Administration of
of Science and and Technology Education
of Sciences (CAS) Print and Publications
Technology (CAST) (MOST) (MOE)
(GAPP)
China National
700 universities,
~200 research Publications Import/
China Science Press 190 Societies >1000 colleges Higher Education
institutes Export Corporation
>200 journals ~1000 journals (most have at Press
~1000 journals (CNPIEC) and
least 1 journal)
other importers
Chinese University Independent
Presses Association presses and
(>100 presses) others
9. Opportunities for Chinese publishers
• Increasing international profile
– Impact Factor and other measures
• Increasing international readership/sales
– Direct sales – very difficult
– Partnership with Western publishers
– The role of Open Access?
10. Opportunities for Western publishers
• Copyright situation much improved, extra funding
to buy legal copies
• Imports
– Inclusion in CNPIEC database (80% market share) and
others
• Local reprint rights/Translation rights
– Beijing Book Fair
– Advice Note on ALPSP website
• Different forms of partnership with Chinese
publishers
– Co-publication partnerships (e.g. Institute of Physics)
– Co-publication of English language editions (e.g.
Springer, Elsevier)
• Entire journals
• Best articles from a range of journals
– Online and/or print distribution agreements
11. Why help Chinese publishers?
• Scholarly communication is advanced if all
scholars have access to the widest range of
other scholars’ work
• Scholarly communication – and the publishing
industry - is advanced if all research publishing
is carried out to highest international standards
• What ALPSP is doing:
– Programme of training for Chinese publishers (in
UK, in China – backed by research into their
specific needs)
– Aim to build up to CAS/ALPSP journal publishing
diploma
– Regular CAS/ALPSP conference on scholarly
publishing (starting 2007)
