This document provides an overview of scholarly publishing in China, including books, periodicals, and differences from Western journal publishing. It discusses the Chinese DOI registration system and CrossRef's role in China. Key points are that nearly 2,000 Chinese journals assign DOIs, most through the Chinese system, and CrossRef services like reference linking and CrossCheck help journals improve quality and avoid misconduct.

1. Scholarly Publishing and
CrossRef in China
Yan Shuai
Associate Editor-in-Chief, Tsinghua University Press
President, Society of China University Journals
Vice President, China Periodicals Association

2. 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)

3. 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 290 359 180 884
books
Text books 78 281 25 944
Pictures 883 678

4. Overview of Publishing in China:
Books (III) Titles by Chinese SBN
Marxism and Mao 604 Natural Science, general 827
Philosophy 8 600 Mathematics, Physics, 6 997
Chemistry
Social sciences 5 344 Astronomy, Geosciences 2 014
Politics, Law 15 669 Biological sciences 2 259
Military 1 178 Medical, Health 15 711
Economics 30 253 Agricultural sciences 6 305
Culture, Science, 133 054 Industrial technology 44 539
Education, PE
Linguistics and 19 550 Transportation 4 189
Litterateur
Literature 32 317 Aeronautics, Astronautics 338
Arts 19 825 Environmental sciences 1 706
History, Geography 14 511 Comprehensive 2 850

5. 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”

6. Differences between Chinese and the
Western Journal Publishing (I)
• Not many journals published by the publishing
houses

7. Sponsor Distribution of STM
Journals in China (ISTIC, 2005)
Sponsors (Owned, Edited, Quantity Percentage （%）
and “Published” by)
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 29 0.6
hospitals

8. Differences between Chinese and the
Western Journal Publishing (II)
Examination and General Administration of Press and
Approval Publication, GAPP: new titles; new publishers;
changes of titles, administration and
sponsorship, frequencies, etc.
Administration and For example: Ministry of Education
Sponsorship
(Ownership) Universities under the administration of MOE
Localized Issuing and Registration of the Permit for
management Periodical Publishing (after GAPP’s approval);
Annual check;
Examination and approval of the supplements
…

9. 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.

10. 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”.

11. 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.

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. 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

15. 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.

16. Cases (I): Forestry Studies in China

17. 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

18. What are some of the benefits you have seen
from participating in CrossRef?
Ms Li Hui:
 Hits increased
 Linking expanded

19. Cases (II): Chinese Birds
CrossRef member
CrossRef Services:
 Reference Linking
 CrossCheck

20. To what types of content are you assigning CrossRef
DOIs? How many of each?
• Journal articles
91 articles (DOIs) so far

21. 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.

22. Cases (III)

23. 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

24. Ms Zeng Jie:
• Springer uses reference linking
(CrossReference) for our journal articles’
references
• Reference linking is very useful for
authors, readers, and even publisher

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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”

29. Solutions
• More real journal publishers
• More international cooperation
• More new technologies
• More new standards for writing, editing and
publishing (especially the referencing)

30. Contact me
• yshuai@yahoo.com
• Thank you very much!