International publishing partnerships for China’s english language journals and financial security

Abstract

This article considers China’s English language journals (CELJs) and looks at two aspects of partnership with international publishers: the financial cost and their ability to deliver the quick success objectives of the journals. Success is defined as being indexed in international databases such as SCI (Science Citation Index) and Ei (Engineering Index) Compendex databases. Our research shows that 226 CELJs (57.8%) have an international publishing partnership with publishers such as Springer, Elsevier, and Wiley. A survey of 12 CELJs in Hubei Province, China, shows that 75% journals have financial pressures on the journal operation. The Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (JRMGE) is provided as an illustration of the operation costs of CELJs and to demonstrate the associated financial pressures. We conclude that although international partnership is an on-going fashion at present in China, it has both benefits and limitations. We also propose that to reduce the financial pressure on CELJs, government funding should be differently apportioned, providing a better return on investment (ROI).