In November 2025, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and China Scientometrics and Bibliometrics Research Center jointly published “Annual Report on the Impact Factors of Chinese Academic Journals (Humanities and Social Sciences 2025 Edition)”. The composite impact factor of the “Tourism Science” increased remarkably from 4.138 of the 2024 edition to 7.444, a rise of 79.9%, ranking the second among the journals of “circulation and service” and achieving a historic breakthrough.
This achievement is a leapfrog increase after the “Tourism Science” achieved steady growth in its impact factor for three years in a row, symbolizing a substantive leap of the journal in terms of academic quality, industry influence and disciplinary leadership.
Figure: Change Trends of the Impact Factor of “Tourism Science” 2009-2024
Inaugurated in 1987, the “Tourism Science” is a specialized journal of academic research of tourism supervised by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, run by SIT and publicly distributed at home and abroad. The journal always maintains its rigorous academic connotations and plain editorial style, focusing on tourism theory innovation and frontier of application research, and gradually growing into an authoritative academic stronghold in the domestic field of tourism discipline. In recent years, in terms of development of source of contributions, the journal significantly increased its contribution and copyediting efficiencies by optimizing its online contribution system and setting up a service platform for authors, while precisely engaging with domestic and overseas top-notched research teams to continuously expand high-quality sources of contribution; in terms of scholarly communication, the official WeChat account of the journal operated has become an important medium for dissemination of academic achievements on tourism, effectively enhancing the academic radiation ability of the journal; in terms of academic exchanges, the journal successfully planned and held “3 national annual conferences+ 10 special-topic solicitations +12 cutting-edge academic forums” from 2023 to 2025, thus constructing a multilevel academic exchange system, effectively activating the dialogue and innovative vitality of tourism academic community, and wining extensive recognition from the academia.
The “Tourism Science” has been selected into “Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index” (CSSCI)” as a source journal, “A Guide to Core Journals of China” (Peking University Core Journals), “RCCSE Chinese Core Academic Journals (A)” (Wuhan University Research Center for Chinese Science Evaluation) and “AMI Comprehensive Evaluation Report of Chinese Journals of Humanities and Social Sciences” (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Evaluation Studies) for consecutive years. The journal was awarded many honors such as “Best Journal of Shanghai”, “Best Journal of Shanghai Universities and Colleges”, “National Excellent Journal of Social Sciences in Colleges and Universities”, “Outstanding Journals of Shanghai in Journal Editing and Proofreading Quality Inspection”, “RCCSE Chinese Core Academic Journals (A)”, and “Important Source Journal of Reprint for Newspapers, Journals and Materials Replicated by Renmin University of China”..
The development of “Tourism Science” is not only an important embodiment of improvement in SIT’s capabilities of disciplinary construction and scientific research service, but also a result of long-term support from all walks of life. In the future, SIT will continue endeavoring to create a tourism academic journal brand with international influence and contribute more to prospering China’s tourism discipline research and serving the high-quality development of the industry.
By courtesy of Tourism Research Institute and the Editorial Office of Tourism Science