China is poised to become one of the world's leading sources of basic research over the next five years, with an increasing number of Chinese experts getting their papers published in world-renowned academic journals, like the Nature.
This observation was made by Charles Jennings, executive editor of the London-based Nature Publishing Group.
Three senior editors of Nature are in town on a week-long visit at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Yesterday they met some 300 researchers with the academy, answering questions and exchanging views.
"Noticeable progress can be seen in the Chinese papers presented to Nature over the past three years. They are now providing more convincing solutions to their questions," said Meeghan Sinclair, an associate editor of Nature Biotechnology.
"So, on the one hand, we are here to discover young talents and, on the other, to let them have a better understanding of the application procedures to our journals," he said.
The Nature family comprises 11 international publications, including Nature - a weekly collection of comprehensive scientific papers - which was founded in 1869, three monthly review journals and seven monthly primary research titles such as Nature Genetics and Nature Biotechnology.
According to the group, each Nature journal receives some 70 to 200 theses from around the world every week, with 10 percent of them being accepted. One percent of the successful papers come from the Chinese mainland.
"The difference in language can hardly prevent the papers by Chinese researchers from going international since our copy editors are capable of penetrating their non-native English comprehension and turning them into true ideas," said Magdalena Helmer, a senior editor of Nature. "If the researchers can focus on exciting sciences and applicable solutions, they can get more bylines in our journals."
Luo Da, a researcher with the Shanghai Research Center for Life Sciences, agreed.
"It's imperative for Chinese scientists to have a better understanding of international academic journals before they present their papers to Nature," he said.
"Generally, Nature prefers papers with excellent innovations linked to issues of public concern, such as how to combat the ongoing bioterrorism," said Luo, whose article on flower genetics was published by Nature in 1996.
(eastday.com November 2, 2001)
