On September 27, 2022, the first meeting of the editorial board of Global Transitions, co-hosted by Tsinghua University’s Vanke School of Public Health and KeAi, was successfully held online and in-person at the Tsinghua Unisplendour International Center. The board meeting was attended by more than 50 participants, made up of 19 senior editorial board members and 24 young editorial board members, as well as experts from universities and scientific research institutions.

Participants conducted an in-depth exchange and discussion on the positioning of Global Transitions, its strategic target, key areas of focus of manuscripts, the working mechanism of the editorial board and the responsibilities of the editorial board members, as well as the planning for future work.

The meeting was chaired by Huang Cunrui, a tenured full professor at Tsinghua University and executive editor-in-chief of Global Transitions.

Margaret Chan, Founding Dean of the Vanke School of Public Health and honorary director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), conveyed her belief that to strengthen international academic cooperation in public health and wellness is particularly urgent, especially in the context of multiple challenges facing global public health and human health. She conveyed her confidence that Global Transitions will make an outstanding contribution to global public health with the joint efforts of the entire editorial board.

Peng Bin, general manager of China Science and Technology Publishing and Media Corporation and Chairman of KeAi, introduced the background and development history of Global Transitions in detail, and further proposed the future development goals and directions of the journal in the future. He believes that the journal will become a high-level international journal recognized by the academic community, thanks to the vision and mission of Tsinghua Vanke School of Public Health highly match the positioning of the journal, coupled with the strong support of many experts and scholars.

Liang Wannian, Executive Vice Dean of Vanke School of Public Health, Director of the China Institute for Healthy China and editor-in-chief of Global Transitions, proposed that it is a global consensus to enhance strategic scientific, technological power and knowledge reserve capacity in the field of public health and wellness. Academic journals are not only an important platform for academic research exchange, but also an important force to promote theoretical innovation and scientific and technological progress. He predicted that in the future, the development of the journal will become an international top academic journal in the field of public health and wellness under the joint efforts of all editorial board members.

Liang Wannian proposed that it is a global consensus to enhance strategic scientific, technological power and knowledge reserve capacity in the field of public health and wellness

Huang Cunrui made a working report which encompassing various aspects of the development of the journal, including: the development of global public health and wellness disciplines; the strategic cooperation between the Vanke School of Public Health of Tsinghua University and KeAi; the target orientation and development concepts of the journal; the important role and working mechanism of the editorial board of the journal; the journal’s aspirations for the coming year; and, a working plan for the journal.

Lei Jiang, publication director of KeAi, made a report on the previous publications of Global Transitions, international influence, the main composition of the editorial board and editorial committee, and a working plan.

Afterward, Peng Bin, Wannian Liang and Huang Cunrui jointly issued editorial certificates to the senior editorial board members and young editorial board members of the journal.

Meeting participants engaged in discussions that explored how to build an internationally leading academic journal. They reached a consensus on the target orientation, development direction and key areas of the journal, as well as the working mechanism of the journal editorial board. The meeting also featured closing remarks by Wannian Liang, who proposed that the topic scope of the journal should be kept focused and broad, and the research field should focus on the important issues that need to be solved and long-term planned in the field of public health and wellness. Besides, the journal should have unique and distinct characteristics on the basis of ensuring its scientific nature. The journal editorial board and the editorial department would work together to promote the future development of the journal.

Written by ZHAO Rong

Edited by LIN Chang’An, LI Tian, James Paul