On June 28, 2019, the Symposium on Development Strategies of International Soil and Water Conservation Research (ISWCR) was successfully held at the International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation (IRTCES), chaired by Professor Tingwu Lei, Editor-in-Chief of ISWCR. Prof. Duihu Ning, deputy director of the IRTCES, and also the Secretary-general of WASWAC, made a welcome speech. The participants included Prof. LI Rui, the president of WASWAC, Prof. Rubio Jose, the vice president of WASWAC, Prof. Zlatic Miodrag, the immediate past president of WASWAC, Prof. LV Yonglong from the eco-environmental research center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. MA Aimei and Ms. XU Lijuan, the director and deputy director of Publication and International Cooperation of China Water and Power Press, Dr. QU Paige and Mr. ZHANG Tan from the editorial board, Manager CHEN Xiangru from Keai Publication, and Manager DU Yaowen from the Clarivate Analytics.

Dr. Paige introduced the development of ISWCR in recent years and the procedures of review for submitted manuscript, summarized the progresses since 2017, pointed out the current challenges, and tried to provide strategies to resolve existent problems. Prof. Mark Nearing, the Editor-in-Chief of ISWCR, gave an introduction on editors’ work flow and current cite situation with a video prepared for the conference, as he was unable to attend this occasion for busy schedule. Prof. LV Yonglong shared his experience of establishing Ecosystem Health and Sustainability and undertaking the associate editor, emphasized the important roles of editorial board and calling for manuscript in journal’s development. Managers CHEN Xiangru and DU Yaowen evaluated ISWCR’s position in various disciplines based on its current situation and journal citation reports. Prof. Rubio Jose and Prof. Zlatic Miodrag provided suggestions to accelerate the improvement of papers’ quality through collaboration with related academic institutes.

Prof. MA Aimei and Prof. LI Rui expressed their appreciation to the attended participants for their valuable and helpful suggestions to improve ISWCR’s quality. They believe that ISWCR must be more influential while having more readers, more authors, and more cooperation institutes in the near future.