Study On China’s Social Sciences Academic Journals "Going Out"

With the globalization around the world nowadays, the "hard power" competition among different countries has been gradually replaced by the "soft power" competition, which to a large extent, constitute the basic pattern of international competition. The elements of "soft power" are the contents of social sciences research. In this sense, China’s achievements, communication capacities and international competitiveness in social sciences research represent China’s "soft power" and are China’s important strategic resources.In January2004, China proposed and began to practise China’s philosophyand social sciences "going out" strategy with a series of supporting policies, which showed the government’s determination of further developing China’s philosophy and social sciences. The enforcing of this "going out" strategy is of great significance to enhance China’s "soft power". Basically synchronized with China’s philosophy and social sciences "going out" strategy, China’s publishing industry "going out" strategy was proposed and enforced with the government’ sgreat support in policies, finance, etc. In order to realize "going out", the research achievements of China’s philosophy and social sciences must use the facility of publishing, and the "going out" of China’s publishing industry is to provide such facility to introduce China’s culture to the world. Therefore, the synchronization of China’s philosophy and social sciences "going out" strategy and China’s publishing industry "going out" strategy is not a coincidence and it’s thenecessary requirement of China’s cultural output and involvement of globalization.In terms of choosing the communication channel of academic research achievements, academic journal is regarded as the most efficient tool. In the practice of China’s philosophy and social sciences "going out" strategy and China’s publishing industry "going out" strategy, the "going out" of China’s social sciences academic journals is the focus of both of them.This paper firstly analyzes the necessities of China’s social sciences academic journals "going out" and relative policies, then summarizes the "going out" status of China’s social sciences academic journals based on quantitative statistics while illustrating the detailed strategies of China’s social sciences academic journals "going out" with three case studies, then studies the subjective and objective factors affecting the "going out" of China’s social sciences academic journals, and at last discusses the strategies to promote China’s social sciences academic journals "going out" from both government’s macro-level guidance andsocial science academic journals publishing agencies’practices.The "going out" of China’s social sciences academic journals is required by China’s national image construction, culture and academy communication, economy development and technology innovation. Meanwhile, the "going out" of China’s social sciences academic journals is well supported by various institutes, which makes China’s social sciences academic journals more competitive in international "soft power" competition.The study of present "going out" status of China’s social sciences academic journals shows that most journals can be found in some foreign countries’libraries and only a few of them are indexed by world famous indexes, but China’s social sciences academic journals do not actually become a virtual part ofinternational academic community. The disciplines with better "going out" performance are history, linguistic, art, literature, archaeology, economy, etc. Compared with comprehensive journals, professional journals are generally with better "going out" performance and, therefore, more suitable to international academic journals publishing environment. Publishing in English is an efficient path for China’s social sciences academic journals "going out", but the number of China’s English social sciences academic journals is small, their professional level and academic quality are relative low, and they do not pay enough attention on those disciplines in which foreign readers’are interested. Sino-foreign cooperative publishing enhances the international competitiveness of China’s English social sciences academic journals, providing good platform and strong motivation for these journals "going out".The case studies shows that to realize the goal of China’s social sciences academic journals "going out", China’s government and publishing agencies’support is the guarantee, journal content with Chinese research characteristics is the premise, academic quality is the foundation and various publishing languages arc the characteristics, Sino-foreign cooperative publishing is an efficient channel and the transition of comprehensive journals to professional ones is necessity for China’s social sciences academic journals "going out".There are several subjective and objective factors affecting the "going out" of China’s social sciences academic journals. Subjective factors include ideological differences between China and western countries, China’s social sciences research lack of independence, restriction of China’s publishing administration system and languages differences. Objective factors include the undeveloped publishing idea, unsatisfied journals quality, significant differences of editing and publishing standards between China’s academic journals and western journals, small-scale development pattern and unjustified academic research evaluation standard in China.China’s social science academic journals "going out" is a systematic and complex project and it needs efforts from both China’s government and journal publishing agencies. China’s government policies indicates that the government will further reform its publishing system, full support several journals, integrate publishing resources and build efficient publishing platform for China’s social science academic journals "going out". Social sciences academic journals publishing agencies should clarify journals’positioning, emphasize the development of English journals publishing, improve journals’academic quality and enhance the business management abilities for journal publishing.