According to the 5-year co-publishing agreement signed by the sponsors of Journal of Arid Land (JAL) and Springer (a world famous publishing company), the two sides will conduct a cooperation. Springer will exclusively publish the electronic version and print version of JAL outside Mainland China commencing with Volume 5, Issue 1, 2013, and an electronic version will also be available at SpringerLink (www.springer.com/40333).

Since launched in 2009, JAL has insisted on an international development approach and raised its international impact quickly. According to the ISI Journal Citation Reports, the impact factor of JAL in 2011 is 0.542. Furthermore, the Index Copernicus Value of JAL in Index Copernicus is 5.09. The cooperation with Springer means JAL has made an important progress in the international development. In terms of the quality and level of JAL, it also means that there will be a higher academic requirement in the future. In order to shorten the manuscript’s publishing period, if only the final editing process of an accepted article is completed, the article will be published in online first on SpringerLink beginning from December 2012. With the Springer’s international brand and SpringerLink platform, JAL will continuously improve the international impact and attract more high-quality research results. 

Founded in Berlin in 1842, Springer has major offices in Berlin, Heidelberg, Dordrecht and New York City. Springer is a global publishing company which publishes books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Springer also hosts a number of scientific databases, including SpringerLink, Springer Protocols and SpringerImages. SpringerLink is one of the most popular electronic publication platforms in the global scientific and technological publishing market.