The first issue of Vita, a top-tier international scientific journal that will focus on the fields of life sciences and biomedicine, will debut this spring.
It will be published by China’s Higher Education Press, led by Westlake University and jointly developed by member institutions of the recently formed Life Sciences Open Alliance.
The associated Langtaosha Preprint Platform, spearheaded by the Shenzhen Academy of Medical Sciences and jointly built with Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Tsinghua and Westlake universities and other institutions, has already gone online.
The coordinated development of the journal and the platform will provide scientists in the life sciences and biomedical fields with a pre-publication channel for the rapid sharing of research results, while also establishing a core hub for top-level academic exchange and dissemination – offering scientists a premier platform to make their voices heard.
Vita has been established as a direct response to real-world needs in China’s scientific and technological development. Over the past decade, China’s research strength in the life sciences has risen to the forefront globally, but the development of Chinese-led top-tier journals has not kept up.
“It is imperative to build world-class scientific journals that are led by China and internationally recognized,” said Yigong Shi, president of Westlake University and vice-chairman of the Life Sciences Open Alliance.
In August last year, 15 universities and research institutions from mainland China and Hong Kong, including Westlake, jointly initiated the alliance and announced plans for the launch of Vita.
At the alliance’s annual meeting in December, the number of member institutions was expanded to 33 and the Vita Life Sciences Series Journals Steering Committee was established. Dangsheng Li, chief scientific officer of the Shanghai Science and Technology Research Institute, was appointed editor-in-chief of Vita, with Shi, the convener of the alliance’s Journals Steering Committee, serving as co–editor-in-chief.
Vita will systematically build a professional editorial team to ensure innovation and authority through rigorous academic standards. The journal will adhere to the principles of openness and sharing, with no open-access fees or page charges to authors.
Li said the journal was named after the Latin word for life.
“It not only precisely aligns with the discipline’s attributes but also embodies an academic spirit that transcends borders and embraces diversity,” he said.
Preparations for the journal are progressing smoothly. Its international standard serial number (ISSN) has been approved; an expert advisory committee has been established, with nearly 100 top scientists from China and abroad invited to join; and the first batch of original research articles for the flagship journal has entered the final review stage.
The papers will be released online in the first quarter of the year, with the first print issue scheduled for publication in June. The alliance’s Journals Steering Committee also plans to gradually promote the development of Vita sub-journals, building a complete Vita journal series.
Vita’s website (https://www.vita-journal.com/vita/EN/home), its manuscript submission and review system (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/vita), and WeChat public account have all been launched.
