Building internationally competitive journals for science data sharing: The evolution of three biomedical English...

Academic journals serve as the platform of scientific collaboration. As China's contribution to world-class science is advancing at a remarkable pace, cultivating world-class English-language journals has become a national imperative issue. Taking Academician George F. Gao and the three flagship journals he founded or led-Protein & Cell (2010), China CDC Weekly (2019), and hLife (2023)-as examples, herein we trace the evolutionary trajectory of English-language periodicals in China, dissecting their evolving missions, internationalization strategies and contributions to biosafety and ethical governance to provide a reproducible roadmap for currently-emerging journals. Through analyses of the case of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) gene-editing ethics controversy, pandemic-data-sharing protocols, and international cooperation frameworks, we highlight that journals are pivotal arenas where domestic and global scientific discourses on critical biosafety and public health issues are made. Building internationally competitive journals for science data sharing scientific governance will serve as a critical foundation for China's ambitions to become a scientific power and for its deeper engagement in global science and technology governance.