A Brief History of Springer Nature in China

1. A Brief History of Springer Nature in China • Ed Gerstner 印格致 • Director Journals, Policy & StrategyChair, Springer Nature SDG Programme • 12th September 2019

2. Key dates in the history of Imperial China • 600–500 BCE — Confucius, Lao Zi & Siddhārtha Gautama establish the philosophical principles of Confucianism, Daoism & Buddhism. • 221 BCE — Qin Shi Huang, the ‘first emperor’, unites China, establishes Qin Dynasty, ending the Warring States period that lasted from 475 BCE. Invents civil service, money, unifies language. Builds Great Wall of China. • 206 BCE–220 CE — Han Dynasty, adopts Confucianism, establishes the Silk Road, and forges the idea of ‘Han Chinese’ cultural identity. • 1271 CE — Kublai Khan conquers China, and in the process halves its population from 120 million to 60 million, to establish the Yuan Dynasty. Soon after is visited by Marco Polo. • 1368 CE — Peasant Zhu Yuanzhang overthrows Yuan to establish Ming Dynasty. Constructs world’s largest navy, explores Africa & Middle East. Builds Forbidden City in Beijing. • 1644 CE — Founding of Manchu Qing Dynasty.

3. Key dates in the history of modern China 1839–1842 — First Opium War ends with the Treaty of Nanking, ceding Hong Kong to Britain, opening up Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai to foreign powers, and beginning the ‘Century of Humiliation’. 1894–1895 — First Sino-Japanese War. Taiwan and other islands of the East China Sea (including Senkaku/Diaoyu islands) ceded to Japan. 1912 — Sun Yat-sen deposes Qing Emperor Puyi, establishing the Republic of China. 1931 — Japan invades Manchuria. 1937–1945 — Second Sino-Japanese War. 10–25 million Chinese dead. 1949 — Mao Zedong establishes People’s Republic of China (PRC). • 1963— Premier Zhou Enlaicalls on China’s scientists and engineers to realize ‘The Four Modernizations’. • 1976 — Mao Zedong dies. Deng Xiaoping emerges as de facto head of China. Initiates major economic reform. Opens universities. Establishes National Natural Science Foundation of China.

4. Science in China — the four modernizations 四个现代化 • In January 1963, at a Conference on Scientific and Technological Work held in Shanghai, Zhou Enlai (Premier of the PRC from 1949-1979) called on China’s scientists and engineers to realize ‘The Four Modernizations’ in the fields of • Agriculture; • Industry; • National defence; and • Science and technology. • In 1978, Deng Xiaoping set about to about to realize the Four Modernizations through a massive programme of economic reform, including a vision for sustained long term increased investment in science and technology.

5. Science in China — growth in investment • China’s investment in science has already eclipsed Europe. The US is next.

6. Science in China — growth in quantity AND quality

7. Nature Research’s editorial presence in China • Helena Yang — Editorial Director • Jie Wang, Zhe Wang — Nature Cell Biology • Yiyun Song — Nature Chemical Biology • Wei Fan, Chingyu Huang, CongCong Huang, Bo Liu, Robert Stephenson, Yaoqing Zhang, Jiajun Zhu — Nature Communications • Xujia Jiang, Rebecca Neely — Nature Geoscience • Xin Li — Nature Materials • Lin Tang, Lei Tang — Nature Methods • Wenjie Sun — Nature Nanotechnology • Yun Li — Nature Physics • Jun Lyu — Nature Plants • John Plummer — Communications Materials • Shanghai office launched in 2012

8. Springer Nature’s presence in China Our business Staff: ~230staff in 4 locations Research Education 20% Beijing: 116 80% Shanghai: 99 Taipei: 4 67% Hong Kong: 13

9. What are we doing in China? • Looking for the best research to bring to the world. • Explaining to researchers exactly what we’relooking for in the things we publish. • Helping China’s researchers get published in the best journals. • Helping our editors from other offices discover China’s science. • Making sure we have people on the ground who understand the who, what, where and why of everything that’s going on in China. • Since 2012, our editors have reached >10,000 researchers at >100 institutes throughout China. Visiting editors from outside of China have enabled us reach even more.

10. China was an obvious destination — Where next? • As part of Springer Nature’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals — and in particular to the goals 5 (Gender Equality), 10 (Reduced Global Inequality) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) we’re committed to finding ways of expanding representation of editors, editorial board members, authors and referees from the Global South. • We have to do better to include the Global South!

11. Thank you! 谢谢 • Ed Gerstner 印格致 • e.gerstner@nature.com • 科学有险阻 苦战能过关 Kēxuéyǒuxiǎnzǔ,  kǔzhànnéngguòguān • Science has obstacles. Hard work can overcome.