China
Hubertus Riedesel, executive vice-president of physical sciences and engineering at Springer
Hubertus Riedesel, pictured with Jinghai Li, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Deborah Yang is Chinese but works for Charlesworth in the USA as its account manager and communication officer. She has experience of academic research in both China and the West
For Western publishers in China, if a journal has a high impact factor, it is easier to get subscriptions. Budgets are a big concern to users or librarians and they only allocate funding to journals that are absolutely essential or rank top in their subject area. For publishers who do not have high
impact factors, the marketing work will be comparatively harder. For Chinese publishers in the West, the big challenge can be the language. Many Chinese researchers have problems with this.
The way of doing business in China is different from the West and can inhibit many academic publishers from being able to enter and engage with Chinese scientists, universities and publishers. However, with time and effort, Western publishers can cultivate a fruitful relationship with the country. While many publishers struggle to set
up their infrastructure in the Chinese market, due to the many bureaucratic and political hurdles, it is possible for relationships to flourish. For example, Springer has developed a solid foundation over a 30-year period and has expanded its close contacts in China. Springer has had an office in Hong Kong since 1985 and in Beijing since 2006. Such relationships are forged at book fairs
and conventions where the West can meet the East to discuss their shared industry and developments being made on both sides of the world. These introductions often evolve into long-standing contacts and relationships. These then set the foundation for comprehensive negotiations that result in substantial cooperation agreements with Chinese publishing partners. For instance, Springer was able to develop strong contacts to strategic partners like Science Press, Science in China Press, Tsinghua
University Press, Higher Education Press, Zhejiang University Press and the institutes of the Chinese Academy of Science. These relationships paved the way for the creation of leading Chinese scientific journals and monographs in the English language. In addition to making Chinese research available to the rest of the world, it is also vital for Western publishers to engage with China on future scientific endeavours so that shared scientific pursuits are cohesive. In an effort to lay the groundwork for this dialogue, in 2006 Springer established the Springer Chinese Scientific Publishing Advisory Board – which, in part, seeks to nurture the exchange and cooperation between Chinese scientists and their counterparts in the rest of the world. Springer’s Chinese Library of Science
(CLoS) is the largest collection of research from China in English, consisting of almost 90 English-language scientific journals – of which 45 are now indexed in the Thomson Reuters index. With these publications, researchers and library users worldwide gain access to Chinese scientific work that was once not easily available to the international scientific community. All the CLoS journals have international editorial boards, with most of them counting at least one third of their members from countries outside China.
Antoine Bocquet is associate director Asia-Pacific, Nature Publishing Group, and executive vice president of NPG Nature Asia-Pacific
There is still room for expansion in China. However, after starting out at low pricing, many Western
publishers
are now struggling to obtain the true value
they perceive in the Chinese market. The Chinese government also increasingly insists that Chinese journals acquired by foreign publishers are made freely-available in China. Piracy is another big challenge. For market segments where protection of IP is not a real concern (e.g. the hospital market), publishers are losing ground to pirates who can provide unauthorised electronic document delivery service very cheaply. China has a good internet backbone, when
access is allowed. As China is a blank slate for much content, there will be opportunities if the government relaxes restrictions on disseminating information. Right now, the biggest opportunities are in expanding the businesses based on selling large databases of journal content, as more universities have more sophisticated research needs.
Research Information October/November 2010 19
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