On April 8th, the symposium on strategic partnership with Nature Publishing Group (NPG) was held at Room 210, School of Material Science and Engineering (MSE). The representatives of Nature Publishing Group include Dr. Nick Campbell, Executive editor of Nature as well as Director of global institutional partnerships, and Ms. Cen Lichao, Director of business development of Nature in Greater China region. The representatives of MSE are Dean Prof. Sun Jun, vice Dean Prof. Shan Zhiwei, Dean Assistant for foreign affairs, Prof. Zhang Wei, and many other professors from MSE. 

 

Dr. Nick Campbell first introduced global business projects of NPG, including Nature Index, Nature partner journals (NPJ), Nature master-classes and so on. He addressed that China has become the leading contributor in conducting high-level research, and the key measurement - Nature Index, of China has increased by 16% last year, which in turn resulted in a decrease for other countries, including US, UK, Japan, Germany, etc. It is therefore the scope of NPG to intensify the cooperation relationship with renowned Chinese research institutions, and by setting up some joint journals serves as an excellent solution. In the symposium, the representatives from both sides reached an agreement that a brand new NPJ with Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) will be promoted in the near future.

In the free discussion session of the symposium, professors and students from MSE raised various questions regarding research training, paper writing, etc. Dr. Campbell has responded to all the questions in a convincing and informative way. 

Overall, the symposium is an important step forward in developing the strategic partnership between NPG and XJTU.