On December 26th, 2018, the delegation from Nature Research, which is the publishing company of the world-renowned scientific journal Nature, visited Wuhan University (WHU). Two sides exchanged views on the possibility and areas for future cooperation.

Present at the meeting were Dou Xiankang (President of WHU), Li Jiancheng (Vice-President of WHU), Paul Evans (Director of Nature Research Group, Greater China), six representatives from functional departments of WHU, and two representatives from Nature Research.

President Dou Xiankang at the meeting

At 8:30 a.m., they met in the conference room in administration building of WHU. Firstly, Xu Dongxing, director of WHU's Office of Party and Government Affairs, introduced the attendees of the meeting. At the meeting, president Dou extended warm welcome to Mr.Evans and expressed his expectations of their further cooperation. “Scientific research has always been the core of the development of WHU.” Dou said. He also added that scholars of WHU are endeavoring to enhance the quality of scientific research, and the quality of published papers measures the academic strength of a university.

“I’m very pleased to visit Wuhan University again, last time was three years ago, and to see all the work being done here and to talk with your students about how they want to get their works published.”said Paul Evans, who later expressed his appreciation for the high-quality scientific research of WHU. For Nature Research, the quality of the publications is always prior to the quantity. Mr. Evans would like to see China play a leading role in the world scientific research in the near future.

Director Paul Evans at the meeting

The Nature Research Delegation (left side) and WHU Representatives (right side) exchanging opinions

Vice PresidentLi Jiancheng later proposed providing basic sciences training to students and scholars of WHU so that they can get more information about how to get articles published.

The scientific research in China has improved rapidly in recent years. Statistics show that the number of SCI publications of Chinese scholars has exceeded that of American ones in 2018,  which was previously estimated to happen between 2020 and 2025. China has shown enormous potential in various fields, especially in chemistry and physics. More high-quality essays are expected to be produced. To achieve that, Nature Research has set up an office in Shanghai in 2012, which provides service to Chinese scholars so that they can achieve more scientific success in China.

In 2017, 10 disciplines of WHU were listed into the “Double First-Class” initiative for their powerful academic strength and reputation. Zhang Zhenzhen, regional partner group manager of Nature Research (Central China), expected that further cooperation between the two sides would enhance WHU’s academic reputation and make WHU’s academic achievements renowned worldwide.

Photo by Yang Ziqing

Edited by Li Yushan& Hu Sijia