Academic News

Nature, a journal with a history of more than 150 years, recently announced the launch of an Economics section and appointed Dr. Yang Xia as the section's first commissioning editor. With this move, Nature is also evolving from a field-leading journal primarily focused on the natural sciences into a world-leading weekly committed to multidisciplinary scholarship.

The origin of the name Nature: Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by her - unable to step out of her, and unable to enter more deeply into her mysteries. - Goethe.

In November 1869, the first issue of Nature was published. It was founded by Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer, who also served as Nature's first editor until 1919. His aim was to bring news of discoveries and inventions to scientists and the public, an editorial idea that was both bold and risky at the time. The earliest editors came from the X Club, brought together under the influence of Thomas Henry Huxley, and the first article was written by Huxley, drawing mainly on excerpts from Goethe.

Over the past 150 years, Nature has witnessed major breakthroughs in the history of science, from the theory of evolution to the structure of the DNA double helix and the discovery of insulin. Each of these advances marked a major step in humanity's exploration of life. With the rapid development of interdisciplinary research over the past decade or more, scholars have increasingly recognized that economics should no longer be limited to traditional theory, but should be applied across a wide range of disciplines. Its capacity to be revised, applied and extended demonstrates the power and appeal of economics. Economics has become an important and priority discipline in Nature's development.

In 2020, after widely seeking input from scholars, Nature decided to establish an interdisciplinary section grounded in economics and to identify economics as an important and priority discipline for the journal's development. Economic research is central to addressing global social challenges and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Editor profile: Yang Xia received her PhD in ecological economics from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom and is currently a senior editor at Nature Communications. As the journal's only social science editor, she handles manuscripts related to socioeconomic issues, environmental policy, health risks, climate change and sustainable development. With ten years of experience in the UK, she has focused on multidisciplinary research linking natural disasters, health risks and socioeconomic impacts, and has published several high-impact SCI papers. From June 2020, Yang Xia will join Nature as its first senior academic editor for climate change economics, mainly handling original manuscripts in climate change economics, energy economics, climate change policy, sustainable development and socioeconomic research. She will also become the first full-time Chinese social science editor in Nature's 150-year history.