To know BJTUP’s focus areas, one needs to just browse through its catalogue. Publications on urban transportation and rail systems—with niche titles on high-speed maglev traction power-supply systems, intelligent processing for railway satellite positioning data, and broadband mobile communications for rail traffic systems, for instance—dominate the pages. The press is also copublishing the Advances in High-Speed Rail Technology series with Springer Nature, with three titles released so far and more on the way. Having a parent university with some of the best transportation system simulation and automation laboratories in the country certainly helps in providing the research materials and talents for such a publishing program.
Nevertheless, slow and steady is the motto at BJTUP, which averages 400 new titles per year. “A train that goes too fast may derail,” says Zhang Zimao, the president. “Quality is always the goal. With quality products, you attract quality talents to write the next batch of titles, which will get us the market and sales that we want.” He notes that BJTUP “is very young compared to other university presses—only 17 years old—but we know our strengths. And so long as we keep our eyes on what the audience wants, and why they need the products, we will be on track.”
With the global attention on China’s massive investment in domestic high-tech rail infrastructure and the pan-Eurasia Belt and Road economic initiative, BJTUP is gearing up for more rights sales and copublishing deals on related content with overseas publishers. The press also publishes widely on industrial security and development, low-carbon logistics, green energy, and sustainability.
Then there is its M+Book (mobile multimedia plus book) program. “Most of our textbooks have M+Book support, and we have started building the same for our academic list,” Zhang says. “With image recognition technology and encrypted access, M+Book prevents piracy while delivering additional content with multimedia, AR, and 3-D simulations. It is a part of our ongoing reform efforts to be more engaged, and in tune, with our audience and their needs in this era of mobile devices and blended learning methods.”
