In a move to raise the profile of scientific research from Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, leading publisher of scientific journals Nature Publishing Group (NPG) launched a new website "www.naturechina.com" on Saturday.

"Every week Nature China's editors will select the best research recently published on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong and provide a short summary of the results," said Phillip Campbell, Editor-in-Chief of Nature.

"By organizing this research into a comprehensive, regularly updated, one-stop web portal, Nature China will help scientists and science policy makers find information on the most significant research coming out of China," he said.

"This new member of the Nature family will increase the international profile of Chinese scientific publications as well as communication between Chinese scientists," said Campbell.

In 2005, Chinese scientists published more than 150,000 scientific papers worldwide, according to the Institute of Science and Technology Information of China. China has become the world's fourth largest producer of scientific papers after the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.

"Nature China is one of the key components in NPG's strategy to develop publishing initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region," commented David Swinbanks, NPG Publishing Director for the Asia-Pacific region,

"Our aim is to raise the profile of region's best science and thereby enhance its further development."