The past, present and future of scientific and technical journals of China

The early days of the People's Republic of China saw the development of science and technology at home with an accompanying development of scientific and technical journals. A succession of natural disasters then weakened the economy and many journals had to cease publication. The disruption of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution followed and only twenty journals survived. Since the opening up of the economy the Chinese government has supported scientific and technical journals and these have developed rapidly. There are now a large number of journals but many of them are still of low quality and little impact, and too few are in English. The number in English will now increase considerably, as will their international influence.