Caitlin Meadows
The Charlesworth Group
caitlin.meadows@charlesworth-group.com
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Summary of main Chinese academic institutions;
consortia; and some recent changes (CALIS > DRAA)
Strategy – your China Footprint
Current and future trends; mapping your strategy
against them
Top 10 countries submitting
manuscripts
2013 Projected
2003
China
5%
United States
4%
4%
4%
United Kingdom
5%
India
Japan
5%
42%
6%
Germany
Italy
France
6%
United States
3%
6%
32%
6%
6%
Taiwan
Canada
7%
China
10%
Spain
10%
Australia
Iran, Islamic Republic
of
United Kingdom
Turkey
8%
Japan
10%
21%
Korea, Republic of
Brazil
38% non-native English countries
5% China, 42% USA, 10% UK
Source: Thomson Reuters
63% non-native English countries
32% China, 21% USA, 6% UK
Print Acquisition
Online Content Acquisition
$
Import Agents
(Govt approved)
$
China Academic
Library &
Information System,
Now DRAA; CASHL
Increase since WTO,
CNPIEC
(Beijing Book Co)
70% market share
100k titles imported,
CEPIEC
25+ smaller agents
Membership,
Individual subs
China
$
$
NSTL
National Science &
Technology Library
Smaller local
consortia &
Gvmt agencies
$
University libraries
CAS,
Chinese
Academy of
Science, Research
centers
$
Corporate sales/MNCs
Large
National
Consortia
Regional or
Subject Specific Consortia,
Multi-site licence
Institutional sales, Site Licences,
Print sales, Discount sales
Individual sales, Sponsored sales, Pharmaceutical
reprints
NSTL, National Science & Technology Library
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Centrally funded to purchase content, MoST
600+ members, 1 licence for all to access
Virtual organisation, 9 members: CAS, CAMS, CAAS, ISTIC
Have local hosting archive requirements
Recent focus local hosted legacy content
CALIS/DRAA, China Academic Library & Information Systems,
Digital Resource Acquisition Alliance of Chinese Academic
Libraries
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Centrally administered, but not centrally funded, MoE
600 member institutions, each has to fund purchase themselves
Deep discount requests on site licence price, lengthy central negotiation
of contract
Prefer to do deals with larger publishers
Recent change in structure
Restrictions if content already sold in secondary aggregations
NSTL
DRAA
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National Science & Technology Libraries,
National Library of China, Beijing University
Library, and National Science Library of CAS…
Issued a joint statement to international publishers to protest
the planned unreasonable price increases by a few
international journal publishers, and to announce joint
actions in negotiation with those publishers to keep down the
price inflation rate.
http://www.las.ac.cn/subpage/Information_Content.jsp?InformationID=5372
Look at the geographical bias...
1 Peking University
2 Tsinghua University
3 Fudan University
4 Zhejiang University
5 Nanjing University
6 Shanghai Jiao Tong
Univ
7 Wuhan Univ
8 Renmin Uni of China
9 Jilin Univ
10 Sichuan Univ
Source: Chinese University
Alumni Association 2009 (slides
prepared by Adrian Stanley
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What are your primary goals?
Subscriptions (direct, consortia)
 Society members
 Corporate sales
 Submissions
 Networking
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Your impact on and with China
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Sales (market analysis, gap)
Online usage (including OA content, analytics)
Local editorial board members (active)
Chinese Authors/co-authors
Attending/organising local meetings
Local language material/website
Local staff, contacts and partners
Your educational outreach (systems/training)
How you are viewed in China/reputation
Business development opportunities/ranking
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More focus on direct institutional subscriptions
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More online site licences and regional consortia sales
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Assess market gaps; arrange online trials; can take longer, but
good approach for publishers with mature subscription profile
Corporate sales: key opportunities in pharmaceutical sectors
and energy (petro-chem). (Western pharma products = c. 50%
of the market.)
Appetite for economics and education increasing
NB geographical provenance in your subject coverage
Decline in print acquisition, but still opportunities
among ‘second tier’ institutions
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Low-cost print deals
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Appetite for legacy content
Emphasis on filling gaps in content portfolio, and acquiring
new content streams: databases and books/ebook collections
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DRAA, CASHL, CAS, as well as NSTL
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Inter-regional Ebook Consortium (4000+ books via MyiLibrary)
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Influence of metrics on subscription trends
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Tailoring to China’s socio-political trends
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Watch ereader/ebook trends
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China has the largest number of mobile subscribers in the world
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Ereaders are pricey, but... Shanda Literature Group’s ‘Bambook’ costs
RMB999; Hanvon (70% market share) – launching in the US; Kindle;
Founder
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Popularity of Cloud Computing – Shanda’s ‘Cloud Bookstore’ has
3million titles
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Smartphone usage and sales increasing rapidly as China becomes
more consumer/consumption-driven
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Still issues of formats and content predominantly Chinese/general
literature
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Opportunity for partnership and collaboration with Chinese
publishers
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Number of English-language publications in China relatively low, but
publishers want to gain international profile through distribution and
hosting channels that access the West
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Co-publication; local language editions (sponsored or self-funded)
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Collaborate/form publisher-consortia with other similar publishers
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Technical: internet access speed can be an issue: consider mirror
servers/CERNET. Social media tools for marketing and searching
differ in China (Baidu, micro-blog )
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Linguistic: In some subject areas, English still does not predominate
so English-language content is still less attractive; ease of doing
business requires Chinese interface
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Academic: Some elements of multidisciplinary research still novel;
emphasis on Impact Factor
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Social: ‘China will get old before it gets rich’. (By 2015 the number of
people entering the workforce will be dramatically lower than the
number of people retiring at the age of 60 that same year.) [Source: US
Department of Commerce]
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Intellectual: IPR contraventions and piracy still an issue but changing
China’s top universities could soon rival Oxford, Cambridge and the Ivy League, the president
of Yale University has warned.
Professor Richard Levin... said Chinese institutions would rank in the world's top 10
universities in 25 years' time, squeezing out some of the west's elite campuses... At the moment,
British universities dominate the top 10 rankings... The rest of the top 15 are US universities.
China's highest-ranking institution is Tsinghua, at 49.
But the Chinese government now spends billions of yuan – at least 1.5% of its gross domestic
product – on higher education with the aim of propelling its best institutions, such as the
universities of Tsinghua and Peking, into the top slots, Levin said.
"In 25 years, only a generation's time, these universities could rival the Ivy League," said Levin.
China has more than doubled the number of its higher education institutions in the last decade
from 1,022 to 2,263. More than 5 million Chinese students enrol on degree courses now,
compared to 1 million in 1997.
Source: guardian.co.uk (2 February 2010)
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Consider your China Footprint
Be patient: deals can take time to secure, and
rely as much on ‘guanxi’ – business rapport –
as the commercial detail
Consider who can help you increase your
Footprint (agents; editors; corporates)
Please contact me:
Caitlin Meadows
caitlin.meadows@charlesworth-group.com
Thank you!