Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics (GPB), the official journal of Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Genetics Society of China, will be funded by the Project for Enhancing International Impact of China STM Journals (PIIJ) 2016-2018 (Phase II) with a total value of 1.5 million CNY, as announced by the PIIJ Office on August 12, 2016.

PIIJ, a major initiative to foster the development of STM journals in China, was firstly launched in 2013 jointly by six national organizations and ministries, including China Association for Science & Technology, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chinese Academy of Engineering. The aims of PIIJ are to promote internationalization of China’s STM journals, enhance international influence and core competitiveness of STM journals published in English, as well as develop an array of high-level STM journals in English that represent national research front or fill the subject gaps in China’s English STM journals.

GPB had been funded by the Phase I of PIIJ (2013-2015). During this period, major efforts had been taken to optimize the workflow and rebuild the editorial team, as well as to solicit and promote quality manuscripts. As a result, international shares of editors, reviewers, readers and authors were significantly increased. Moreover, publication cycle was shortened remarkably with the adaptation of Article-in-Press and improvement of article quality. GPB has been awarded as one of the “Highest International Impact Academic Journals of China” three years in a row (2013-2015). Notably, GPB gained great public attention for publishing “My Journey to DNA Repair”, which was contributed in 2013 by its editor, Dr. Tomas Lindahl, the recipient of 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his “mechanistic studies of DNA repair”. We are also honored that Dr. Lindahl contributed the preface for GPB special issue “Genomic Stability” in 2016 to highlight the latest research progress in this field.

In total 267 STM journals in English filed for the selective support by Phase II of PIIJ. After stringent evaluation by experts in research and publishing domains, a total of 105 current journals and 20 journals to be launched were selected for funding support by Phase II of PIIJ in 2016-2018.

The reception of the PIIJ Phase II of GPB acknowledges the great potential of GPB and will definitely boost further improvement of GPB in the years to come. Continuous efforts will be made to further attract international editors, reviewers, authors and readers, by improving article quality, shortening publication cycle, and enhancing journal promotion, for better and broader international awareness and impact, with ultimate goal to serve as an international platform for academic exchange and dissemination.