ISI Impact Factor (2006): 1.737

Editor-in-Chief
Prof. Yi-Fei WANG,

The Asian Journal of Andrology (AJA) and Nature Publishing Group (NPG) announce a newly signed co-publishing agreement. AJA is jointly sponsored by the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). This new long-term partnership with NPG represents a leap forward for AJA. The Acta Pharmacologica Sinica (APS), another journal sponsored by SIMM, simultaneously announces their publishing partnership with NPG.

The new partnership is officially created among three parties in the signing ceremony

AJA focuses on the increasingly important branch of medicine_andrology_that deals with the male reproductive physiology and pathology and is the official journal of the Asian Society of Andrology. Since its foundation in 1999, AJA has established an international reputation in andrology and related fields. In 2007, AJA developed a new strategy to promote the international reach of AJA. As part of this strategy, AJA established a new editorial board containing more than 100 well-known international experts and appointed five regional coordinators from Asia, Europe, North America, Australia and Africa.

NPG is a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd., dedicated to serving the academic, professional scientific and medical communities. It is a global company with headquarters in London and offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Tokyo, Paris, Madrid, Munich, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Delhi, Mexico City and Basingstoke.

NPG Publishing Director David Swinbanks said, "We are excited to be co-publishing these journals with such distinguished partners. These new agreements, together with our existing partnership to publish the journal Cell Research, also based in Shanghai, mean that from 2009 we will publish the top three ranked journals in life science or chemistry based in mainland China. These are excellent additions to our program of partnerships with key scientific and clinical organizations across the Asia-Pacific region."

The group photo for the signing ceremony

"We are delighted that NPG, which is renowned as one of the world's premier science publishers, will now be co-publishing these two high-quality journals with us", said Prof. Jian Ding, Director of SIMM. "We expect that this new partnership will help the journals to go from strength-to-strength in the future".

Vice President of SJTU Zheng-Gang Zhu said "Our university is pleased to be a sponsor of the top andrology journal in the Asia-Pacific, especially now that it will be co-published by NPG. This cooperation with NPG will build on the international reputation of AJA, furthering communication between Chinese researchers and their international peers."

"This is an exciting partnership between AJA and NPG, improving both AJA's global reach and NPG's standing in Asia and China." said Prof. Yi-Fei Wang, Editor-in-Chief of AJA.

Prof. Jian Ding (Director of SIMM) is speaking in the signing ceremony		Prof. Zheng-Gang Zhu (Vice President of SJTU) is speaking in the signing ceremony		Prof. Yi-Fei Wang (Editor-in-Chier of AJA) is speaking in the signing ceremony

These partnerships are the latest in a series of partnerships that NPG Nature Asia-Pacific is undertaking with scientific and clinical societies in this region. NPG Nature Asia-Pacific is a wing of NPG and has offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Delhi and Melbourne

AJA will take advantage of NPG's strengths including editorial expertise, pioneering web technologies, innovative formats and high-quality production to provide premium information for scientific researchers in the public and private sectors, government agencies and educators. Papers published in AJA will receive high exposure through nature.com, which has over 35 million page downloads per month, and can also benefit from press coverage and quick publication, including publication ahead of print.

These landmark agreements, alongside the recent launch of the website Nature China, mark the next steps in NPG's broader strategy to publish the best of Chinese science.

Just as Prof. Yi-Fei Wang said during the signing ceremony, with this beginning we are half way there! Today we have made a splendid start and we have full confidence in having a splendid future! Our aim should be attained, our aim must be attained, and our aim can certainly be attained!

Links:
Asian Journal of Andrology: http://www.asiaandro.com
Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica: http://www.simm.ac.cn/English/English.htm
Shanghai Jiao Tong University: http://www.sjtu.edu.cn/english/index/index.htm
Nature Publishing Group: http://www.nature.com
NPG Nature Asia-Pacific: http://www.natureasia.com
Nature China: http://www.nature.com/nchina

《亚洲男性学杂志》与自然出版集团签订出版合作协议

《亚洲男性学杂志》（Asian Journal of Andrology，AJA）与自然出版集团（Nature Publishing Group，NPG）于2008年3月31日签署了出版合作协议。AJA由中国科学院上海药物研究所和上海交通大学联合主办。另外一本由上海药物研究所主办的杂志《中国药理学报》同时也与NPG签署了合作协议。

AJA是亚洲男科学会的会刊，主要内容涉及男性生殖生理和病理相关的医学研究。从1999年创立以来，AJA已经在国内外男科学及其相关领域内享有盛名。2007年，AJA制定了一个国际化发展的新策略。举措 之一就是编辑委员会的换届，重新组建了由100多名国际知名的男科学及其相关领域专家组成的编辑委员会，还新任命了5名地区执编，分别负责亚洲、欧洲、北美、澳大利亚和非洲地区的组稿工作。

NPG是麦克米伦出版有限公司的分支，致力于为科研学术和医学界服务。NPG的旗舰品牌产品《自然》杂志创刊于1869年。其它出版物有《自然》系列杂志、《自然评论》、《自然临床实践》，以及众多享有很高声望的学术期刊，包括一些由学会主办的出版物。NPG是一家全球性公司，总部位于伦敦，在纽约、旧金山、华盛顿特区、波士顿、东京、巴黎、马德里、慕尼黑、德里、墨西哥城以及贝辛斯托 克均设有办事处。

NPG亚太出版总裁David Swinbanks说：“我们非常高兴能与如此杰出的伙伴进行出版合作。这次新签署的协议连同我们已经签署的与另一本上海期刊《细胞研究》（Cell Reasearch，CR）的合作协议，意味着从2009年起我们将和中国大陆生命科学及化学领域最优秀的三本期刊进行出版合作。这将进一步加强我们在亚太地区和重要的科学组织以及临床机构开展伙伴合作的计划。”

“我们很高兴能和NPG这个世界一流的科学出版机构就这两本高质量学术期刊进行合作，”上海药物研究所丁健所长说，“我们期望这一新的合作伙伴关系能极大地促进这两本杂志的发展。”

上海交通大学朱正纲副校长说：“作为主办单位，上海交通大学很高兴AJA在亚洲地区男科学界享有盛誉，这次和NPG的合作能促进AJA国际地位的提升，并进一步促进中国科研人员和国际同行进行交流。”

“这是象征AJA和NPG友谊的重要时刻，将会促进AJA的国际化，同时也提升NPG在中国以及亚洲的影响力。”AJA主编王一飞教授说。

NPG亚太分部正在开展一系列同该地区科学组织和临床机构的合作行动，此次签约是该行动的最新进展。NPG亚太分部是NPG在亚太地区设立的分支机构，在东京、香港、德里和墨尔本设有办事处。

AJA将借助NPG丰富的编辑经验、先进的网络技术以及在产品形式和质量方面的创新，为各种公立、私立组织以及政府机构的科研人员和教育工作者提供更多的信息。通过nature.com网站，在AJA上发表的学术论文将会有更高的显示度。该网站每月的下载量达到3500万页。这些文章还能受益于NPG的新闻报道和快速发表，包括在纸版出版之前进行电子出版等。

此次具有里程碑意义的签约和最近开办的Nature China网站，标志着NPG出版中国最好的学术期刊的广阔战略向前迈进了一大步。

正如王一飞主编在签约仪式上所说，此项合作的建立是AJA发展的一个新开始，这是一个很好的开始，是一个事半功倍的开始，因此我们对杂志未来的发展充满信心！我们的目标一定能实现！我们的目标必须实现！我们的目标也肯定能实现！

Remark at the Signing Ceremony between AJA and NPG

Prof. Yi-Fei Wang, Editor-in-Chief of AJA

(Shanghai, March 31, 2008)

Distinguished Colleagues and Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning!

Spring is very much in the air, as the Chinese old saying goes: “The whole year’s work depends on a good start in Spring!” This Spring for our Journal, the Asian Journal of Andrology, is really unusual: Firstly, now we have two sponsors, as you know that since 1999, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica has been being the pioneer, the founder and the powerful sponsor of AJA. Now, from the year of 2008 on, Shanghai Jiao Tong Unviersity, one of the Chinese leading Universities, becomes the second sponsor of AJA, now I have both father and mother; Secondly, today in this hall, an official cooperation agreement has been signed between AJA and Nature Publishing Group, one of the world-famous publishing company. On this happy occasion, may I have the pleasure, on bahalf of AJA and my colleagues, to convey our sincere gratitude and cordial greetings to the leaders of Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and Shanghai Jiao Tong Unviersity, as well as to my new partner, Mr David Swinbanks of NPG. This occasion reminds me of another Chinese Proverb, it says: “A double happiness and double blessing has descended upon my house!” Being the Editor-in-chief of AJA and executive President of the Asian Society of Andrology, you can imagine how excited I am today!

Almost 10 years ago, AJA was born in Shanghai, as compared with our elder brother, Acta Pharmacologica Sinica, AJA is still a boy, a young boy, but AJA is a young boy with great energy, great enthusiasm, great envision and great expectation. As we all know that Andrology is the study of men’s reproductive health, that means, all men are able to have a safe and satisfying sex life and the capability to reproduce, and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. I do believe every body is this hall, no matter men or women, will give us fully support, because men’s health is of critical importance to a harmonious family and a ahrmonious society.

But ladies and gentlemen, I have to say the current status of men’s health in Asia is far from satisfactory, you see, more than 60 % of the world population is living in Asia, of course, 60 % of men on this planet is inhabiting in Asia, they need male contraceptives, they need male infertility service, they need ED prevention and treatment, they need prostate problems consultation and education, in a word, they need Andrology. People’s need is our starting point! So the mission of AJA is to build an academic platform for scientific information exchange, in order to promote scientific communication and cooperation among scientists and doctors in Asia, as well as in the world, aiming at providing people with best reproductive health care. In the world today, there are three major Andrology academic centres, one in America, one in Europe, and one in Asia and Pacific region. It is no doubt, that the publication of AJA is a great momentum to increase the voice of Asian Andrologists in the world. With this mission in our mind, AJA, since her start publication in 1999, has been making signfiicant progress, in terms of publishing more than 600 articles in AJA, in terms of steady increasing of her SCI Imapct Factor, in terms of her ranking position in global leading Andrology periodicals, as well as in terms of great success of a series of Asian and Pacific Forum on Andrology, organized by AJA. Next year, we are going to organize the Third Asian and Pacific Form on Andrology, with the theme of “Environment, Life Style and Genetic/Epigenetic Factors and Men’s Health”, in conjunction with the Celebration of the Tenth Anniversary of AJA. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take this chance to send all of you our cordial invitation and am looking forward to meeting all of you at the Forum. Dear Dr Swinbanks, I sincerely hope that NPG can help me in publishing a special proceeding for this big event.

Last year, we develop a new strategy for AJA, that is to promote globalization of AJA. We, located in Asia, should be facing the world! Based on this new strategy, we establish a new Editorial Board with more than 100 world reknown experts, and designate five Regional Coordinators from Asia, Europe, America, Australia and Africa respectively. Today we take another big leap forward, a new long-term partnership will be established between AJA and NPG at this critical moment. I would like to say, this is an extraordinary opportunity for AJA, Opportunity always meets prepared brain! Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to say “ We are ready now!” We sincerely wish our new partnership will make AJA further step forward to the world, as well as help NPG to be widely accepted in Asia and China. I do believe, the five year cooperation between us will lead to a win-win situation.

A Chinese Proverb says: “Well beginning, half done!” Today we have a splendid start, we have full confidence to our splendid future! Our aim should be attained, our aim must be attained, and our aim can certainly be attained!