China core periodical (selected) database was established by Wan Fang Data Company in 2003. Wan Fang data is based on digital journals in China, and some journal entries are collected from related databases such as China Sci-tech Literature Database, China Sci-tech Papers and Citations Database, forming a selected database of core journals in China.

It has nothing to do with the core journals mentioned at present in China, and is a completely independent database.

Core journals are the main journals of a certain discipline, generally referring to professional journals with large amount of professional information and high quality, which can represent the development level of professional disciplines and are valued by readers of this discipline.

There are many ways to determine the core journals. Generally, our country comprehensively determines according to the following principles: journals with a large number of articles (that is, the number of documents published in this discipline), journals with a large number of secondary literature excerpts, and journals with a large number of readers' quotations.