On May 17, which marked the 8th anniversary since General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at a seminar on philosophy and social sciences, the National Center for Philosophy and Social Sciences Documentation under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) released a report on user attention to Chinese journals in 2023.

At the release conference, CASS President Gao Xiang noted that the Center serves as both a physical data repository and a vital platform for international academic exchanges. He stressed the need to leverage the Center’s distinctive advantages to intensify the dissemination of research outcomes on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, as well as on philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics.

Gao also called for attention to trends of cross-disciplinary integration and documentation of esoteric and niche disciplines in order to showcase research frontiers while leading academic development, thereby making due contributions to constructing an independent Chinese knowledge system and building a modern Chinese civilization.

The report tracks the number of times journals were accessed and downloaded through the Center’s platform to generate the attention index, which encompasses attention to journals, disciplines, and research subjects, geographical distribution of attention, and usage by institutional users. Based on the attention index of 1,999 journals, documented prior to Jan. 1, 2023 and accessed through readings and/or downloads in 2023, 213 journals were recognized as the most popular. These include Acta Archaeological Sinica, Social Sciences in China, Contemporary American Review, and Historical Research. Additionally, 48 institutions were awarded as “best users,”

including the Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province, Guizhou Provincial Library, the Open University of China, and the Shandong Federation of Social Sciences.

Among the 1,999 journals, the 20 most accessed involved 10 disciplines, covering history, archaeology, Marxism, economics, political science, and others.

In terms of users’ retrieval behavior in 2023, “education” ranked first among the top 20 hot search keywords, followed by “artificial intelligence,” “Dream of the Red Chamber,” “cultural confidence,” “‘double-reduction’ policy,” and “cyber violence.” In addition, political terms like “Chinese modernization,” “rural revitalization,” “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” “common prosperity,” and “Belt and Road Initiative” also featured prominently on the list.

According to the report, access by foreign users grew approximately 33% compared to the average of previous years. Singapore, the United States, and Japan were among the top three nationalities of visiting users. Analysis of keywords from articles read or downloaded more than 100 times by foreign users in 2023 reveals that entries about traditional Chinese culture and about literature and arts constituted a significant proportion. Examples include “ancient Chinese literature,” “historical poems,” and “Annals of Master Yan.”

By the end of 2023, the Center had incorporated 2,356 Chinese journals, an increase of 80 from 2022. A total of 132 collections were included for the first time, and more than 13.83 million articles were documented, up 630,000 from 2022.

Currently the Center hosts over 26 million academic resource items, including content from nearly 90,000 Chinese institutions and over 1,300 foreign academic institutions. It serves over 7.5 million individual users from more than 190 countries and regions, and records nearly 1.5 billion visits. With enhanced document service capacities and enriched academic resources, the Center has emerged as the world’s largest Chinese-language academic information platform on social sciences.