China is one of the key forces in publishing. The region produces vast amounts of research and has ambitious goals in publishing; including proactively embracing the transition to open access. As such, there is a huge opportunity for collaboration with China – both in terms of publishing research from Chinese authors and enabling increased collaboration between societies, institutions, and publishers on a global scale.

In July, we were invited to deliver presentations at 2 parallel sessions at the 24th Annual Meeting of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), the 5th Forum for World STM Journals, and the  5th World Forum on the Development and Governance for Science and Technology Societies. As the only international publisher invited in the main forum to present to Chinese societies, researchers, and professionals, it reflects our growing collaboration with China and in turn the exciting opportunities this brings for our society partners across the world. But why did CAST invite us and what did the Chinese societies want us to talk about?

Who is CAST?

The China Association for Science and Technology is the largest non-governmental organization of scientific and technological professionals in China. It has 210 national member societies and local branches all over the country.

As such, CAST represents an enormous community of Chinese societies, including millions of Chinese scientists, engineers and other professionals working in the fields of science and technology. Given that China is a key player in the evolving publishing landscape, collaborating with CAST presents an unmissable opportunity to build a stronger relationship with the academic and publishing community in China.

Why did they invite Wiley to their conference?

As in other regions, Chinese societies are keen to make the most of current publishing opportunities and drive the advancement towards an OA world. International collaboration is critical here, so we can all be more successful in achieving these shared goals. CAST invited representatives of well-known sci-tech organizations, academic institutions and publishing agencies to lead in-depth discussions. As an international publisher, our role is to enable increased opportunities on a global scale, for everyone we work with in publishing - from researchers to our society partners.  Given that we have partnerships with societies across the world and due to our work to drive the open access agenda, our goals and values are strongly aligned with those of CAST and of China in general. This has enabled us to build an increasingly collaborative relationship with China, which is reflected by the invitation to speak at CAST’s flagship events.

What did we talk about at the CAST conference? 

This year, CAST chose a theme of "sharing science and sharing the future" for the STM Journal forum, focusing on  the development of STM journals in the context of open science.

Open access research is growing rapidly across the world – and in China, it’s no different. In just the past 3 years, open access (gold and green) has become the dominant form of publishing in China, and gold open access output has more than doubled in that period. This highlights a real preference on behalf of the researcher community, and one that is highly aligned with the priorities of the Chinese government. 

So open access was a natural topic for us to discuss at the conference. Liz Ferguson, Senior Vice President of Research Publishing, delivered a presentation on how we can ensure a sustainable transition to open access in the 5th World STM Journal Forum. This isn’t a new topic for our partners, but it was an opportunity to examine the complexities of the transition to open access and to discuss how to create a sustainable transition, so our journals are pitted for success. 

The talk was well-received by attendees, with feedback including:

It is the best speech in the journal forum , the insight about value of OA journals and APC pricing candidly answers the questions the industry cares about for a long time

Philip Kisray, Senior Vice President and General Manager, China, was invited to speak at the 5th World Forum on the Development and Governance for Science and Technology Societies. His talk, “Success through innovative publishing solutions”, focused on the opportunities for partnership with Chinese societies and how we can build even stronger relationships that will shift us ever closer to our publishing goals. 

By adopting a more global mindset, we can continue to increase the impact of the research we publish. It’s clear that China is a major player in the evolving publishing landscape – great collaboration with this region will bring greater benefits for all the societies that partner with us and enable us to maximize collaboration opportunities on a global scale.