Dear editors, authors, readers and friends:

“Asian Journal of Social Pharmacy”(AJSP) was founded eight years ago. In the past years, AJSP has overcome many challenges and become one of the famous journals in Asia with the help of members of the editorial board, authors and readers. Your companionship and support give us the strength to move forward constantly. Now, we want to express our sincere thanks to the editors, authors, readers and friends. From 2014, this Journal will be fully changed into an English magazine. We will take this as a new starting point to make this journal an international publication so that we can serve better for the majority of researchers and readers as a “bridge”. We look forward to your continued support and concerns.

1 Reasons for the comprehensive revision

1.1 It is the trend of international academic journals

Academic journals represent the scientific research level in a country and they can better carry out international exchanges. Some people have proposed that Chinese academic journals should be internationalized since the reform and opening up and the relevant state departments have also made various corresponding policies for this trend. GAPP has been committed to the implementation of Chinese journal “going out” strategy, encouraging journals to spread the Chinese excellent culture of modern civilization through foreign periodicals, copyright cooperation, etc., and taking advantage of foreign partner's sales network, brand and advertising resources. In 2003, the Ministry of Education proposed that some journals should attract outstanding international paper from famous scholars. By the end of February 2012, nearly 380 kinds of foreign language academic journal had been founded in China and they were basically published in English, including 329 kinds of natural sciences and nearly 50 kinds of social sciences. From 2000, the newly founded foreign natural science journals have reached about 80. However, social science journals development is relatively slow and nearly 25 journals were founded, equivalent to the grand total from 1950 to 1990. "Presenting Chinese culture to the world” not only represents the development of the times, it is the inevitable result of economic globalization.

1.2 It is necessary for journals to be internationalized to improve influence

It has far-reaching significance for the development of academic journals to be internationalized. International academic journals can not only improve their influence, but also attract the contribution of renowned scholars. “Chinese natural medicine” collaborated with Elsevier Publishing Group and utilized its Science Direct database platform by publishing international network version, the international downloads accounted for 67% which greatly improved its influence. In 2005, “China and World Economy”, an English academic journal sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of World Economics and Politics cooperated with a foreign well-known publishers, which quickly improved the journals influence, and in 2006 it was adopted by SCI and became one of the well-known social science journals in the international community. “Social Sciences in China”, which has over 30 years of running history, has been also in cooperation with foreign publishers in recent years. By 2012, its issue conditions rank top among many Chinese foreign academic journals.

1.3 International language is the basis for journals

As Britain and other English-speaking countries are in the leading position in technological development and English has been used as a communication tool. Creating English journals is a good attempt to meet the need of foreign distribution, expansion of foreign readers and improving communication with other countries. Nowadays, 70% of the world's scientific papers are published in English. In 1999, CD-ROM version contained 640 Chinese SCI papers and 12711 English papers. About 80 percent of SCI indexed journals was in English, but from Chinese collection of papers, approximately 99% was in English. Many Chinese journals have been aware of this phenomenon and begin to set up English periodicals, such as “Chinese natural medicine”, “Pharmaceutical Journal” and “herbal medicine”.

“Chinese natural medicine” was founded in 2003 and it was based on Chinese language, in 2010 it was changed into an English journal. In March 2012, it became one of SCI-E source journals. “Chinese natural medicine" was founded eight years ago and after being changed into an English journal for two years, it became the first two pharmacy journals indexed by SCI. Therefore, publishing in English will do good to the journals development, especially for the SCI selection.

2 The path and direction for AJSP international development

The goal of “Asian Journal of Social Pharmacy” is to shorten the gap between pharmaceutical research and drug supervision & management. Its mission is to promote domestic and international social pharmacy research and related information. In the past eight years it has been basically achieved its goal, namely, the form and content of all papers are internationalized, such as the international general layout, English abstracts etc. Each publication must have at least two articles in English. It has laid a good foundation for the 2014 transformation. In 2008, the editorial department started using Beijing Magtech editing system and online submission system, which changed the tradition of “face to face” to “network to networks”. Webbased editing system shortens the time for publication and improves the timeliness of the papers. Meanwhile, online editorial system makes the process of peer review just and equitable and it can avoid editing errors. With the maturing of publication, readership continues to expand and registered foreign readers also gradually increase. Some foreign scholars’ contribution showed our publications have attracted attention and recognition. Our editorial team consists of English editors and English proofreading editorials that came from USA, Singapore and Thailand etc. Their language skills and writing ensure the quality of English articles.

2.1 The aim of cooperating with an international publishing group to expand influence

The important sign of a scientific journal to be internationalized is whether the paper included by the international authoritative institutions retrieval system has been cited many times or not. Only when papers are in the retrieval systems, the frequency and likeliness of being cited will increase. The higher the quality of publications and more in line with international norms, the more times the paper will be cited. Cooperation with internationally renowned large publishing group is one effective way to make China's periodicals internationalized. These high-quality publishing services will greatly accelerate the process of being included by SCI. China's “Insect Science” signed a co-publishing agreement with Blackwell Publishing Group in May 2004 and they enforced their contract in 2005. Insect Science submit their applications to the ISI in August 2006 and in March 2007 it was included formally by SCI; Elsevier is a world-renowned publishing house whose publishing journals are internationally high level academic journals. Its database contains more than 2200 kinds of journals, 1375 journals are indexed by SCI, another 522 kinds by EI. “Chinese natural medicine” had cooperation with Elsevier group in 2008 and published its International Network Edition in Science Direct fulltext database platform. It has gradually changed to English journal by 2010; in 2012 it was included by SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded).

2.2 Efforts for achieving an international editorial board and expert

On the whole, China's international editorial board level is still low. By the end of 2009, there are only 55 journals with international editorial board among 1076 kinds of medical journals, accounting for about 5.1% of total. But today, many periodical presses have realized that building an international system on the editorial board of the journal plays an important role for the internationalized journals. In terms of international reviewers, 41.9% journals have achieved their goals, and some journals have been very successful in this field. “Insect Science”has invited international scholars to review papers, international reviewers account for more than 80% of the total. It not only improves the quality of the articles, but also offers great help in terms of their language skills and writing for China and other non-native English speaking countries. International editorial board can review and solicit contributions; they also smooth channels of communication within the scope of the journal in the world of publicity, and improve international awareness and perceptions for the editorial department. In the U.S.A,“Science” editorial board consists of about 100 experts, of which 1/3 of the members are from other countries. Hiring foreign editorial board and fulfilling their duties can attract many outstanding foreign papers which can improve the academic standards. AJSP has employed a certain number of foreign management, pharmacy authoritative editorial board, and looked forward to cooperation with international colleagues so that we can change AJSP into an outstanding international publication gradually.

2.3 Fully developing international manuscript sources and having the same attitude towards for outstanding domestic contributions

Contributions and the author's internationalization is one of the hallmarks of international journals. Our international selection of papers benefits a lot from the international manuscripts; it also reflects the authors’ recognition of the periodicals. Many well-known international journalspublished articles from the well-known authors all over the world. British “Nature” has published more than 1,600 papers from more than 30 countries and regions, including more than 160 Nobel laureates, and its international press rate is about 87%. “Insect Science” manuscripts are from 28 countries and regions and its international manuscripts are over 65%. “Cell Research” manuscripts are from 30 countries and the overseas contribute 35%, the proportion of overseas scholars papers are about 40%. “China and World Economy” magazine has half domestic half foreign authors. International manuscripts are the basis for us to choose high-quality papers.

Of course, a comprehensive revision of the “Asian Journal of Social Pharmacy” will have a large number of translations at the initial stage, and compared with the authors who speak English as their native language, the domestic authors’ overall level of English is not good. However, academic standards is essential for the article, academic quality is the priority, especially for some influential Chinese articles, which reflect the forefront of academic science and technology, we should promote such articles through an interpreter so that foreign scholars can understand the latest developments of China's pharmaceutical industry. We will give great recognition and support to this type of manuscripts.

2014 will be a new starting point and we will face many hardships and challenges. Your concern is the source for us to work hard; your support is the source of our success; we strive because of your expectations and our gratitude to you is beyond words.

Thank you.

Editorial Department of

“Asian Journal of Social Pharmacy”