The role of China's English-language scientific journals in scientific communication

Abstract

Between 1929 and 2002 over 200 English-language scientific journals were founded in China. The number of China's English edition journals in each discipline is, however, not correlated to the corresponding output of China's articles listed in the ISI's Science Citation Index. Clearly, the goal of these journals is to be internationally recognized. It is shown that this goal is rarely achieved. We think that lack of good-quality papers, low international visibility and a citation 'Matthew effect' are the main causes for the small role played by China's English-language journals.