Mechanisms and Governance of Manuscript Outflow from Chinese Scientific and Technical Journals: An International Communication Perspective

Abstract

According to the Blue Book on the Development of Chinese Scientific and Technical Journals (2025) and the 2025 Statistical Report on Chinese Scientific and Technical Papers, more than 95% of the international papers published by Chinese scholars appear in journals outside China, and as much as 97.9% of high-level papers are published abroad; the outflow of high-quality manuscripts has become a prominent bottleneck constraining the development of Chinese scientific and technical journals. From the perspective of international communication, this article conceptualizes manuscript outflow as a structural imbalance in the transnational flow of knowledge and, drawing on literature research, secondary data analysis, and policy text analysis, examines its scale, generative mechanisms, and governance practices. The study finds that manuscript outflow is not simply the outcome of competition in journal quality but the product of three nested mechanisms: evaluation, channel, and language. Policy practices represented by the Excellence Action Plan for Chinese Scientific and Technical Journals have achieved remarkable results in building new journals but remain insufficient in guiding the return of existing manuscript sources. Accordingly, the article proposes governance pathways in four areas: evaluation reform, channel construction, discursive independence, and network expansion.