From an "Excellence Plan" to an "Excellence Ecosystem": Reviewing Chinese-Language Sci-Tech Journals in 2025 at the Close of the 14th Five-Year Plan

Positioned at the close of the 14th Five-Year Plan, this review article examines the development trajectory of Chinese-language sci-tech journals in 2025 and frames the strategic movement as a transition from an "excellence plan" orientation to an "excellence ecosystem" orientation. Rather than treating journal upgrading as a collection of isolated project achievements, the article argues for ecosystem-level thinking that integrates platform capability, policy design, evaluation reform, cluster evolution, and responsible AI application. Methodologically, the paper conducts a structured "annual inventory" using multiple authoritative annual reports as data anchors. It explicitly draws on three major report sources: the Annual Report for Chinese Academic Journal Impact Factors (Natural Science & Engineering Technology), the World Journal Clout Index (WJCI) report, and the Annual Report for International Citation of Chinese Academic Journals. Based on these sources, the review organizes its evidence in three steps. First, it inventories and interprets academic influence indicators for Chinese-language sci-tech journals in 2025, using the annual-report evidence base to characterize the direction of influence change and the structural patterning of influence signals. Second, it compiles the inclusion status of Chinese-language sci-tech journals in authoritative domestic and international databases, treating database inclusion as a proxy for discoverability, dissemination infrastructure, and cross-system interoperability. Third, it reflects on the obstacles that hinder the transition toward an excellence ecosystem and converts those obstacles into a set of development recommendations. The paper's diagnosis of difficulties stresses that ecosystem building requires more than individual-journal upgrading. It highlights, as representative barriers, the insufficient independent research and application of core technologies for publishing platforms, the need for differentiated support policies that match journal heterogeneity, the inertia and lag of scientific research evaluation reform, the requirement for advanced cluster evolution and resource synergy, and the emergence of new ethical and quality-control risks associated with AI application. The logic here is that platform capability and incentive structure jointly condition whether academic influence can convert into stable international visibility and sustainable development. On this basis, the review proposes five development directions that align with the ecosystem framing. It argues for strengthening the independent development and deployment of publishing-platform core technologies; improving differentiated support policies so that support instruments match different journal stages and fields; deepening research evaluation reform so that signals and incentives support high-quality domestic journals; advancing clusters toward higher-order evolution with stronger resource coordination; and promoting the "ethical application" of AI—an orientation that emphasizes responsible use rather than indiscriminate automation. Through these recommendations, the article asserts that the sector should aim to build a sustainable and prosperous ecosystem with internal driving force and high-quality collaboration, thereby supporting Chinese-language sci-tech journals in achieving higher-quality and more resilient development in the post-2025 period.