SCI Journal Quartiles for Chinese Researchers in 2026: What Counts Now That the CAS Division Table Has Stopped

For twenty-two years, one spreadsheet decided how Chinese universities valued a paper. The Chinese Academy of Sciences journal division table (中科院分区表) told you whether your target journal was Zone 1 or Zone 4, and that number flowed straight into graduation rules, promotion scoring and bonus schemes. In March 2026 the CAS National Science Library announced it would stop updating and releasing the table. This guide explains what SCI journal quartiles for Chinese researchers now mean in practice, what your university is likely to use instead, and how to choose a target journal when the ranking you grew up with has gone.

What actually happened in March 2026

The CAS National Science Library, which had produced the division table since 2004, issued a formal statement that it would cease updating and releasing the table from 2026. The statement said the centre would continue research into academic resource evaluation and would focus on serving the domestic and international publishing ecosystem. No replacement ranking was announced by CAS itself.

Two things followed quickly. Universities needed an interim rule, and several announced one within days. The University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, for example, stated on 30 March that papers published in 2026 and later would be assessed against the 2025 division table until further notice. Others have adopted similar "use the most recent table" wording. At the same time, third-party rankings appeared, including a commercial "New Horizon" classification covering more than 22,000 journals, which CAS has explicitly said it is not connected to.

Why the CAS table mattered so much

Outside China, most researchers think in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) quartiles from Clarivate, or in Scopus quartiles from SCImago. Inside China, the CAS table dominated for three reasons. It grouped journals into broad disciplinary categories (大类) so a physics department and a materials department could compare papers on one scale. It applied a three-year average impact factor rather than a single year, which smoothed volatility. And from 2019 it moved to a pyramid model in which Zone 1 held only the top 5 per cent of journals in a category, making "一区" a genuinely scarce label.

That scarcity is exactly why the table became a currency. A Zone 1 paper could be worth several Zone 3 papers in a promotion scorecard, and many hospitals and universities attached cash awards to it. When the currency stops being issued, the question every researcher asks is simple. What counts now?

The three ranking systems you now need to understand

With the CAS table frozen, Chinese institutions are converging on some combination of three systems. Understanding how they differ is the core of choosing SCI journal quartiles for Chinese researchers in 2026 and beyond.

Notice the structural difference. JCR and Scopus give Q1 to the top quarter of a category. The CAS pyramid gave Zone 1 to the top twentieth. So a journal can be JCR Q1 and CAS Zone 2 at the same time, and this was true for hundreds of titles. If your department switches from CAS to JCR, more journals suddenly qualify as "top quartile". If it keeps the frozen 2025 CAS table, nothing changes for now, but the table will age.

For a plain-language primer on the quartile idea itself, read What Are Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 Journal Rankings? and for the index differences, SCI vs SSCI vs Scopus vs ESCI.

How to choose a target journal in the new environment

The practical answer is to stop targeting a zone and start targeting a journal that satisfies every ranking your institution might reasonably apply. We call this the overlap rule. If a journal is CAS Zone 2 or better on the 2025 table, JCR Q1 or Q2 in the category your discipline actually uses, and absent from the CAS early warning list, then it survives whichever policy your committee adopts next year. That is the safest place to aim.

Step 2 is where most Chinese researchers lose time. Searching "一区期刊 材料" produces a list of famous journals, not a list of journals that will accept your particular paper. Scope fit predicts desk rejection far better than rank does. Our guide on journal scope mismatch explains why editors reject papers within 48 hours when the topic does not match.

Which category counts? The trap inside JCR quartiles

If your university moves to JCR quartiles, one detail will decide many disputes. A journal is placed in one or more Web of Science categories, and its quartile is calculated separately in each. A journal in both "Engineering, Environmental" and "Environmental Sciences" might be Q1 in the first and Q2 in the second. Some universities take the best quartile the journal achieves in any category. Others insist on the category that matches your discipline. A few take the worst. The difference between "best of" and "matching category" is the difference between a promotion point and no point.

Read the policy wording carefully and, if it is ambiguous, ask in writing before you submit. It is far easier to change target journals at the planning stage than to argue with a committee after acceptance.

Social sciences: SSCI, CSSCI and the ranking gap

The CAS table was primarily a science and engineering instrument. Social science faculties in China have always relied more on CSSCI for Chinese-language journals and on SSCI quartiles for international ones, and the March 2026 change affects them less. If you work in education, management, economics or psychology, your practical question is whether your university counts an SSCI Q2 paper equally with a CSSCI paper, and most do not weigh them identically. Our guide to CSSCI vs SSCI explains the differences, and our guide for Chinese researchers targeting SCI and SSCI Q1 and Q2 journals covers the wider strategy.

A research team in higher education working with our editors took a concept through design, CFA and SEM analysis to acceptance in Scientific Reports, a Springer Nature journal that sits in Q1 or Q2 depending on the category. The full path from concept to acceptance took under five months. Read the case study →

The early warning list is now more important, not less

With the division table gone, the CAS international journal early warning list (国际期刊预警名单) has become the sharpest single instrument CAS still points at journal quality. Many universities refuse to count, or refuse to reimburse the APC for, any paper published in a warned journal. The list is released annually, historically in the first quarter, and focuses on paper mills, citation manipulation, unusually high self-citation, unusually high proportions of authors from a single country, and rapid growth in publication volume.

The cost of ignoring it is real. A paper in a warned journal can be excluded from a graduation count or a title review even though the journal remains in Web of Science. Before you submit anywhere, check the currently operative list. Our sibling post on how to check the CAS early warning list before you submit walks through the process, and the free Predatory Journal Checker flags indexing and risk signals in seconds.

What "破五唯" means for your journal choice

Since the 2020 policy documents from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology on ending "SCI worship", Chinese institutions have been told to assess representative works (代表作) rather than counts and zones. The CAS decision accelerates that shift. In practice, the representative-works model asks a reviewer to read your best three to five papers and judge their contribution, rather than to add up zone points.

For journal selection this changes the logic. A paper that is genuinely novel, published in a journal read by the people who matter in your subfield, will do more for a representative-works review than a Zone 1 label on a journal your peers do not read. That is why we push researchers to define the contribution first and choose the journal second. Our post on framing your research contribution so reviewers cannot ignore it shows how to do this.

Common mistakes we see from Chinese researchers right now

1. Treating a third-party "new" division table as official.CAS has publicly distanced itself from commercial classifications. Unless your university names one in writing, it has no standing in your review.
2. Chasing the frozen 2025 Zone 1 list without checking scope.The label is stable, but the editorial boards keep moving. Check the last twenty published articles in any journal before submitting.
3. Ignoring the JCR category question.If your policy switches to JCR, confirm whether "best category" or "matching category" applies.
4. Submitting to a warned journal because it is still indexed.Indexing and institutional recognition are not the same thing. The warning list overrides Web of Science membership in many Chinese policies.
5. Waiting for clarity before writing.Policies will keep changing. A well-positioned manuscript can be redirected to a different journal in a week. A manuscript that was never finished cannot.

A worked example

A materials science PhD candidate at a Double First-Class university needs one paper for graduation. The 2024 rule said "CAS Zone 2 or above". The graduate school's interim notice in April 2026 says the 2025 CAS table applies "for now". Her supervisor expects the school to adopt JCR quartiles in the next academic year.

Her shortlist, built from scope matching, has eight journals. Applying the overlap rule removes three: one is CAS Zone 3 on the 2025 table, one is JCR Q2 only in a category unrelated to her work, and one appeared on the 2025 early warning list. The five survivors are all CAS Zone 2 or better, JCR Q1 in "Materials Science, Multidisciplinary", and clear of the warning list. She orders them by typical review time, because her defence date is fixed, and submits to the fastest. Whatever rule the school adopts next year, her paper counts.

Questions Chinese researchers are asking us this year

My paper was accepted in 2025 but published in 2026. Which table applies?

Most interim notices key the rule to the publication year, but some key it to the acceptance date. Your acceptance email and the online publication date are both evidence. Keep them, and ask the graduate school which date governs before you assume the older, more favourable rule applies.

Will CAS publish a new table later?

The March statement said the centre would continue researching evaluation methods. It did not promise a successor. Plan on the assumption that the 2025 edition is the last official one and that your institution will migrate to JCR or an internal list within one to two years.

Does the early warning list still get updated?

The warning list is a separate product from the division table, and universities continue to apply it. Treat the most recent edition on the official platform as operative, and check again immediately before submission because editions change in the first quarter.

Should I target Scopus Q1 instead?

Only if your policy names Scopus. Most Chinese science and engineering rules are written around Web of Science, so a Scopus-only journal, however well ranked, may not count. Social science faculties are more varied, so check.

Where Research Ramp fits

We do not write papers and we never guarantee acceptance. What we do is help you position the manuscript, build a journal shortlist that survives whichever ranking your committee applies, and support you through submission and reviewer responses. For a researcher whose graduation or title review depends on one paper, that end-to-end structure is usually what matters. See our Full Publication Package and our nine-step process from consultation to indexed publication.

If you are still deciding which index to target, start with the SCI vs SSCI vs Scopus comparison, then use the free Journal Finder to generate a scope-matched shortlist you can filter against your institution's rule.

Policy status described here reflects public announcements up to early September 2026. The CAS early warning list and institutional rules change; always verify the current version with your own university before submitting.

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