A new Chinese-funded academic journal, Vita, aims to compete with the world’s oldest and most influential scholarly publications. It is one of several English-language journals launched in China in recent years as part of the government’s effort to build prestigious global journals through its Journal Excellence Action Plan, launched in 2019.

Until recently, Chinese research institutes and universities often worked with international publishers to produce English-language journals. Vita is different because it was founded by Chinese scientists and is published by a Chinese publisher, says Ning Zhang, founder of TopEdit, a Gaithersburg, Maryland-based company that helps Chinese journals build an international presence.

China is a global leader in scientific research, but only a small share of that research is published in Chinese-owned journals.

Chen Fuyou, director of XinRui Journal Ranking, an independent journal-rating website based in Beijing, says that creating Chinese-owned journals could strengthen China’s role in the global scientific community.

“This means that China will be able to define what is a high-quality paper and what is high-quality research based on its own criteria and selection process. It will also be able to decide what kind of papers to publish,” Chen says.

Vita waives open-access publication fees

Vita is jointly funded by the Higher Education Press, a subsidiary of China’s Ministry of Education based in Beijing, and Westhu University in Hangzhou, according to the journal’s editorial team. The journal publishes research in the biological sciences, and its first printed issue appeared in July.

As an open-access journal, Vita does not charge article-processing charges (APCs), which many publishers require authors to pay to publish open-access research.

The high cost of APCs paid by Chinese researchers to international publishers—US$909 million in 2024—is another reason China is seeking to establish its own academic journals. Since March, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has stopped funding APCs for 30 of the most expensive open-access journals.

Vita’s fee-free model will “obviously be attractive” to authors, says James Butcher, a former publisher who runs the Journalology consultancy near Liverpool, England. However, he cautions that maintaining the model over the long term could be difficult because academic publishing is expensive.

Publishers that charge APCs say the fees help cover the costs of open-access publishing, including salaries for editorial and production staff, printing and server expenses.

Butcher also questions whether the journal’s funders will pay the publication costs indefinitely if Vita attracts a large number of international authors. “For example, if 20% or 30% of the papers came from the United States, would they be willing to fund it?” he asks.

Vita says it is committed to waiving APCs for overseas researchers, regardless of the number of submissions it receives.

China invests in globally influential journals

As part of its plan to develop internationally influential publications, the Chinese government is providing substantial funding to 450 domestic journals. Some English-language journals can receive up to 1.5 million yuan—approximately US$223,000—per year for five years.

The plan also supports 13 Chinese academic organizations that publish journals. The government’s goal is to help these organizations grow into major academic publishing groups comparable to Springer Nature, Chen says. This approach is viewed as a more efficient way to expand China’s publishing influence than supporting individual journals one by one.

China’s push to globalize academic publishing