The JRCC Annual Meeting (2021) (ISSN: 2325-9914) was successfully held online on April 17, 2021 (Beijing Time). The conference comprised two segments. The first featured academic presentations and discussions, with eight editorial board members sharing their current research projects. Topics included the contemporary religious landscape in the United States, forms of popular religion in China, contemporary Catholic theology, the religious transformation of Confucianism in the late Ming dynasty, Luo Weilin of the London Missionary Society, Bishop Wu Deshi of the Anglican Church in Hankou, the Vatican and genetically modified technology, and Li Wenyu's relationship with Protestantism. The second segment focused on the journal's editorial practices, submission guidelines, and future development. Attendees engaged in in-depth discussions regarding the editorial board presentations and journal advancement, offering diverse perspectives and particularly constructive suggestions for the publication's growth.
This meeting served as an internal editorial board session for the Journal of Chinese Christian Studies while remaining open to external attendees. Over 50 participants attended and offered the following recommendations for the journal's development:
1. Journal Targeting: Aim for high-tier indexes such as A&HCI; initially target inclusion in the ESCI index.
2. Standardization: Implement double-blind peer review; internal handling may be considered for renowned scholars.
3. Editorial division of labor: Assign different articles to different editorial board members for editing;
4. Print on demand (POD);
5. Guest editors: Assign different editors-in-chief for each issue to oversee manuscript collection;
6. Conference-based solicitation: Organize annual conferences with compensation to gather submissions;
7. Online dissemination: Enhance visibility on platforms like CNKI, ResearchGate, Academia, and Google Scholar for easier retrieval and citation;
8. Print publication (including book substitutions and sample issues): Currently challenging;
9. Scope of submissions: Any content related to Christianity is acceptable;
10. Funding: Manuscript fees and conference organization costs require multi-source funding.