On 10^th April, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Chairman of China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), WAN Gang, visited the office of Light: Science & Applications (LSA), one of China’s most internationally respected science journals.

Wan’s visit to LSA was part of a special investigation aimed at ‘building China’s high-profile STM journals’. Accompanied by LSA’s Editor in Chief, former Vice Minister of Science and Technology, CAO Jianlin, CAST Party Group member SONG Jun, President of Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, JIA Ping and Vice President of CIOMP, MA Mingya, WAN Gang visited LSA’s editorial office, where the editorial head BAI Yuhong briefed him on LSA’s past success and future plans.

                                         BAI Yuhong briefing Wan on LSA’s footsteps and blueprint(Photo by CIOMP)

Later, SONG Jun chaired the Symposium on ’Constructing China’s high profile STM journals’-LSA stop. He emphasized how STM journals reflected a country’s competitiveness in science and technology and stressed that China’s President XI valued STM journals.

On behalf of LSA’s host institute CIOMP, JIA Ping pointed out that LSA was not only a high-profile journal, but also a platform for scientific communication and international collaboration.

                                                    Song chairing the Symposium(Photo by CIOMP)

                                                 JIA singing the praises of the LSA(Photo by CIOMP)

BAI Yuhong gave a detailed presentation on the LSA’s mission, history, initiatives, support from/to the optics society, overseas/regional offices and prospects.

Following her talk, CAO Jianlin concluded that the LSA’s success were built on three key factors: fairness, editors and scientists.

                     Bai giving a speech entitled: Beyond the papers, Serving the Developments(Photo by CIOMP)

                                       CAO Jianlin summarizing LSA’s key success points(Photo by CIOMP)

WAN Gang enquired LSA’s editors about problems they faced at work and requests. He was particularly interested to learn about the journal’s rejection rate, readership, hot topics and editors’ welfare. He praised LSA for its rapid success and prestigious accomplishments in the optics field and urged the journal to go even further.

He pointed out that to accomplish that goal the LSA would need to make some essential moves. First, it needs to optimize the editorial structure through further training, performance incentives, international collaboration and the taking on of part-time editors. Second, the journal needs to stay in close touch with authors, focus on crucial STM projects and increase the percentage of invited manuscripts. Third, the LSA should launch sister journals, according to readers’ demand and China’s strategic needs. In addition, WAN Gang also urged the LSA to take initiatives in opening and sharing resources, establishing a database of STM papers, as well as trying out media fusion publication.

LSA was the third stop for WAN Gang’s special investigation team. Before LSA, they also visited the Chinese Medical Association and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd, both well known for group publishing and commercialization.

                                                           WAN Gang making conclusive speech(Photo by CIOMP)

                       The symposium on ’Constructing China’s high profile STM journals’-LSA stop(Photo by CIOMP)