Editorial: China CDC Weekly’s Second Meeting of the Editorial Board, Advisory Committee, and Editorial Office to Celebrate the Second Anniversary of the Inaugural Issue

November 29, 2021 marked the second anniversary of the founding of China CDC Weekly. Editor-in-Chief George F. Gao, also Director-General of China CDC, organized a meeting with the Weekly’s Editorial Board and Advisory Committee in the multifunction hall of the first floor of the main building in the North Campus of China CDC. In-person and online attendance reached almost 100 participants, including members of the Editorial Board, Advisory Committee, special representatives, CDC department heads, members of the Weekly’s Editorial Office.

At the meeting, the Editorial Office first introduced the progress of the Weekly up to its second anniversary. Overall, 105 issues were published as scheduled, including 56 public health special issues and 533 total articles. The Weekly’s academic quality has been recognized internationally as its full-text has been included in two authoritative databases: the Web of Science’s Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) and PubMed Central (PMC). The ESCI’s data have also shown that the Weekly has a total citation frequency of 2,776. The Weekly has also become the second national public health bulletin weekly journal to be included in PMC after the US CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). All articles and text can be searched via Google Scholar and Google Search, and 237 countries/territories/regions worldwide have recorded visits to the Weekly’s website; users from the US have always ranked first in number of page views. Once an article is published, it is widely reprinted and reported by both domestic and foreign media, and the Weekly has become highlight influential and an authoritative source of public health information. The Weekly’s inaugural issue immediately preceded the emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Based on the principles of openness, transparency, and responsible release of information, the Weekly has edited and published more than 100 new COVID-19 articles and consolidated them into 20 special issues, promptly conveying the latest findings and practices of China’s pandemic response to the international community.

Professor Liming Li, Professor Gabriel Leung, and Professor Zijian Feng, the Deputy Editors-in-Chief of the Editorial Board, as well as Dr. Fujie Xu, the special representative of the Gates Foundation’s Beijing Representative Office, also a member of the Editorial Board, gave speeches to fully reaffirm the Weekly’s practice of editing, calling for submissions, and continuous publication to reach first-class international journal benchmarks. They further provided opinions and suggestions on the development of the Weekly’s continued influence in the post-pandemic era. Members in attendance in person or online spoke highly of the Weekly’s academic achievements in the past two years, actively made suggestions for future calls for submissions, and had great expectations and confidence in the Weekly’s growth into a world-class journal.

Finally, Deputy Director-General of China CDC Jianjun Liu, the Vice-Director of the Advisory Committee, gave a speech expressing that the Advisory Committee will perform its duties in continuing to watch for and pay attention to the development of the Weekly. Editor-in-Chief Gao made closing remarks and put forward specific requirements for the next steps for the Weekly. The first is to closely follow the standards and rules of running a scientific journal and for the relevant members of the Editorial Board to continue to fulfill their responsibilities. The second is to remain problem-solution oriented, publish research articles, and contribute knowledge to China and the global community. The third is to report every domestic public health incident in a timely manner to become a world-connected scientific platform. Finally, Editor-in-Chief Gao thanked the members of the Advisory Committee and Editorial Board for their in-depth participation and thanked the various departments of China CDC, the Weekly’s Editorial Office, all authors, and all peer review experts for their continued support.