Shanghai Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med) is a sci-tech academic journal with global circulation sponsored by Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Shanghai Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine. (ISSN: 1007-1334, CN: 31-1276R, CODEN: SZZHCD, paper size: 210 mm×297 mm, publication cycle: published monthly on the 10th of each month.)

Founded in 1955, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med is one of the earliest academic journals of traditional Chinese medicine in China. It possesses an editorial style of Shanghai school, distinctive for its inclusiveness and pursuit of excellence, serving experts nationwide and communicating ideas worldwide. It aims to promote academic exchanges and contention in the field of TCM research, focusing on academic hotspots in the process of TCM inheritance, development and innovation, and comprehensively presenting high-quality and latest scientific research articles in TCM, Chinese Materia Medica, Integrative Medicine and related interdisciplinary fields.

Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med has a high academic reputation and wide influence in the Chinese medicine community, with editorial board members, authors and readers worldwide. Shen Yanbing (aka Mao Dun), a well-known Chinese writer, was invited to write the journal title in Chinese calligraphy. Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med has been on the list of A Guide to the Core Journal of China released by Peking University for many times. Currently, it has also been on the following journal catalogues: Chinese Science Citation Database（CSCD），The Key Magazine of China Technology, RCCSE China’s Core Academic Journals, China Academic Degree and Graduate Education Designated Chinese Journals, China Biomedical Abstracts, and Chinese Pharmaceutical Abstract, and it has been included in the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), American’s Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory (UPD), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data, Chinese Biomedical Literature Service System (SinoMed) and other domestic and overseas well-known databases. 

First Issue of Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med

At 7:00 p.m. on January 21, 1955, Zhang Zanshen, Cheng Menxue, Zhang Jingren, Wang Yurun, Chen Yuming and Jiang Chunhua, et al., all leading figures in the Chinese medicine field in Shanghai, gathered together under the leadership of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission to set up a preparatory working group for the founding of the Shanghai Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine. On February 18, 1955, the first joint meeting of the editorial board and editorial advisors was held in Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic. Totally 28 experts, including Qin Bowei, Zhang Juying, Shi Xiaoshan, Yan Cangshan, Ding Jimin, Lu Shouyan and Xu Zhongcai et al, were appointed as the editorial advisors. In June 1955, the first issue of Shanghai Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine was officially published.

Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med has been committed to academic development and brand construction since its first issue. Looking back on its sixty-year history, its academic influence has been able to radiate nationwide and even overseas. Thanks to its editorial board members and well-known authors, who are the real stars glittering in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. Zhang Juying, Shi Yiren, Zhang Cigong, Zhang Zanchen, Qin Bowei, Cheng Menxue, Dong Tingyao, Lu Shouyan, Ren Yingqiu, Zhao Xiwu, Yue Meizhong, Shi Xiaoshan, Huang Wendong, Gu Bohua, Wan Yousheng, Jin Shoushan, Dong Jianhua, Fang Yaozhong, Zhang Bone, and Wang Yurun, etc., you name it, they were already great TCM masters before 1950s. Our gratitude also goes to the contemporary leading experts in the field, like Zhang Jingren, Qiu Peiran, Yan Dexin, Deng Tietao, Zhang Canzhe, He Ren, Zhu Liangchun, Ling Yaoxing, Gan Zuwang, Qian Bowen, Ren Jixue, Zhou Zhongying, Yu Ying’ao and so on. Of course those top and outstanding figures growing after the establishment of People’s Republic of China should never be neglected, and they are Wang Yongyan, Lu Deming, Shi Qi, Chen Hanping, Cai Gan, Wang Hongtu, Tang Hanjun, Ma Guitong, Liu Jiaxiang, Qiu Jiaxin, Chen Yiping, Liu Ping and Ling Changquan. Also those pioneers, Chen Keji, Shen Ziyin, Hu Zhibi, Qin Wanzhang and Wang Lingtai, have been dedicated to the development of integrative medicine all along. Some of them published their first academic papers in Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med, some of them chose this platform to first release their core research findings, and some of them started special columns here. It is with the support of these experts and forerunners that Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med is able to provide readers with a sumptuous academic “feast”. 

Chinese Calligraphy of famous academician and scholar to Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med

It has always been an aim of Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med to promote academic debate and boost the TCM theory construction. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med published a series of articles of Zhang Juying, Qiu Peiran and Yan Shiyun on the “Mutuality of Cold Damage and Warm Disease”. The statements in the articles attracted widespread academic attention and became a hotspot for academic debates in the field of traditional Chinese medicine across the country, triggering a lot of discussions and greatly contributing to the deepening of contemporary understanding of syndrome differentiation and treatment of external contraction of febrile diseases. Jiang Chunhua, with the global reputation as a TCM expert, was an active advocate of the integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine in his era. In the late 1970s, he published articles in Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med, proposing two important academic views: “truncation and reversal” strategy and “integration of disease identification and syndrome differentiation” methodology, which created a significant ripple effect in the field of traditional Chinese medicine at that time.

The vitality of Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med is demonstrated by its concern for hot issues in society and its active guidance of public opinions on TCM. Since its founding, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med has always paid attention to the hot and tricky issues of TCM development and played a positive role in guiding public opinions. Once the importance of “TCM modernization” was recognized in the 1970s, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med immediately organized academic discussions among experts and scholars nationwide, and was the first to open a column called “Discussion on TCM Modernization” and published the specific article titled “Preliminary Discussion on TCM Modernization”, which quickly led to a nationwide and interdisciplinary discussion. Lyv Bingkui, Director of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine under the Ministry of Health back then, Chinese famous scientist Qian Xuesen, and Ding Gongliang from Shanghai Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences also participated in this discussion with great interest. A decade later, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med designed the “Century Forum” column, initiating an academic forum on the development and direction of TCM in the 21st century, clarifying some ambiguous perceptions in the field and promoting the positioning of national strategic decisions on the development of TCM in recent years. At the end of February 2003, before the prevalence of SARS infection in China, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med was extremely sensitive to the selected topics on the SARS pandemic, and promptly organized and planned the publication of articles by Prof. Zeng Zhaolin and Prof. Shen Qingfa on their experience in the treatment of SARS with TCM. Undoubtedly, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med became the first academic journal in China and in the field to report the successful intervention and prevention of SARS pandemic with TCM. The publication of these articles was a fight-back against the fallacy of “TCM’s weakness in dealing with acute and sudden illnesses” circulating in the society at that time, and made an important contribution to the national victory over SARS pandemic.

In response to the ardent expectation and instruction of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping about “cultural essence inheritance and innovation” of traditional Chinese medicine in the new era, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med works actively to promote academic exchanges and contention in the field of TCM research, study on academic hotspots in the process of TCM inheritance, development and innovation, and comprehensively present high-quality and latest scientific research articles in TCM, Chinese Materia Medica, Integrative Medicine and related interdisciplinary fields by taking “innovation” and “inheritance” as two main themes of content. 

“Inheritance of Famous Doctors” Column                               “Innovative Exploration in the Disciplines” Column

Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med has set up special columns like “Inheritance of Famous Doctors”, “Experts’ Commentary on TCM”, “Inheriting and Conveying Clinical Experience”, “Essence of Medical Principles and Theories” and “Elaboration on Classic Prescriptions” to publish articles of clinical experience and theoretical innovation written by National Chinese Medical Science Masters, China’s Famous Chinese Medicine Doctors and Masters of Classic Prescriptions. Meanwhile, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med also tracks the clinical and scientific innovation hotspots in the field of modern TCM research, especially the innovative theories and achievements based on the intersection of Chinese medicine theories and herbs with biology, genomics, microecology, computer informatics, etc. The column of “Innovative Exploration in the Disciplines” has received wide attention from the academic community. Many academicians, national distinguished young scholars, national outstanding young scholars and international visiting scholars have actively contributed to the column, which has significantly enhanced the multidisciplinary influence of Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med in the field of modern research of traditional Chinese medicine. Previously, one article published in the column of “Innovative Exploration in the Disciplines” was awarded the “Excellent Article of the Excellent Science and Technology Article Selection Program” in the 4th Competition organized by China Association for Science and Technology in 2019, and the column itself won the honor of “Outstanding Column in East China” in 2020. 

In February 2020, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med opened the “COVID-19 Special Column”, which became the first academic journal in China to have a COVID-19 featured column. All members of the editorial office took the initiative to contact with frontline clinicians and research teams in major COVID-19 pandemic areas across the country, organized their manuscripts, facilitated the publication of clinical and experimental research on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 with TCM in a timely manner, and at the same time optimized the editorial review process and the promotion strategy. The quantity and academic quality of the articles on COVID-19 published in Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med were in the forefront of its kind, which have achieved significant social effects and even broader brand influence. In July 2020, forty-two articles on COVID-19 published in Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med were selected into the WHO COVID-19 Research Database, contributing to the global sharing and promotion of TCM anti-pandemic experience from China. In September 2020, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med was voted as one of the “Excellent Journals on COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention and Treatment” in the “2020 China Excellent Journals Exhibition” co-sponsored by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, and China Periodicals Association for its great work on the “COVID-19 Special Column”. In October 2020, three excellent articles on COVID-19 from Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med were selected by the China Association of Chinese Medicine to be included in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Against COVID-19 (Bilingual), which is a symposium of full-text articles in both Chinese and English for global promotion and distribution.

First Academic Article in the “COVID-19 Special Column”       COVID-19 Articles Included in WHO COVID-19 Research Database

In recent years, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med has paid more attention to the integration of traditional paper journals and multimedia platforms. To follow the trend of knowledge dissemination through mobile devices, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med is continuously optimizing its official website and updating its web server, and is actively promoting excellent academic articles in the style of popular science on the journal’s WeChat public account “Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine (上海中医药 shàng hǎi zhōng yī yào), which has achieved remarkable results so far. Meanwhile, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med has taken the lead in launching and implementing the Open Science Identity (OSID) program for academic publishing among Chinese medicine journals in China to meet the national requirements for multimedia integration in the publishing industry. Through OSID, every single article can be provided with a portal to offer readers a new reading and interactive experience that is different from traditional paper media. Readers can not only read in their heads or read articles aloud, but also “listen” to or “comment” on articles. In other words, they can access and discuss the scientific content of interest in a direct, three-dimensional and in-depth way. Authors can upload relevant audios, videos, images, PPTs and other multimedia materials to enrich their presentation of scientific research results and scientific knowledge, thus increasing the readership and citation rate of articles, expanding their academic influence, and making the research process traceable and promoting scientific integrity. Since 2019, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med has had a pilot production of more than 30 articles with OSID code in key columns, involving interdisciplinary techniques and frontier topics of TCM, COVID-19, traditional Chinese herbal medicine research, acupuncture and moxibustion practice, and TCM orthopedics, etc. The editorial staffs also independently produced original videos for some articles, striving to create “academic masterpieces” for outstanding authors.

Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med has won many honors and awards in recent years.

In 2019, it was on China’s first Ranking Catalogue of Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Journals, being voted as one of the “Internationally Renowned and Very Important High-level Authoritative Journals” (Level T2). Also in 2019, one article published in the column of “Innovative Exploration in the Disciplines” was rated as one of Excellent Articles (only 5 articles were awarded among articles chosen from traditional Chinese medicine science and technology journals nationwide) in the “4th CAST Excellent Science and Technology Article Selection Program”. In the same year, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med received the Outstanding Editorial Quality Award in the editorial quality inspection organized by Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau.

In 2020, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med received the Award for Excellence in Editorial and Proofreading Quality from the China Association of Chinese Medicine, forty-two articles on COVID-19 published in Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med were included into the WHO COVID-19 Research Database, and another 3 COVID-19 related articles were chosen by the CACM to be published in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Against COVID-19 (Bilingual). Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med was also on the list of “2020 China Excellent Journals Exhibition” in the 27th Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF).

In 2021, Shanghai J Tradit Chin Med received the 4th Shanghai University Outstanding Science and Technology Journal Award, the China Journal Design Week Standout Cover Design Award, and the 7th East China Outstanding Journal Award.

It has been 60 years of cultivation in the field traditional Chinese medicine. We have sailed through wind and waves and we will keep moving forward. In the new era, all staff members working for Shanghai Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine will, under the guidance of superior administrative units and the sponsoring unit, with the strong support of the new editorial board and the love from domestic and overseas excellent authors and readers, remain true to our original aspiration and keep our mission firmly in mind, pursue excellence, forge ahead and scale a new height!