A publishing house is an organization that points out books, pictures, magazines, newspapers, electronic articles and other copyrighted articles.

What is publishing? This is the first problem that publishing research should contact. Different understandings of the connotation of publishing activities have different understandings of the framework of publishing knowledge system. Therefore, Chinese and foreign publishing circles attach great importance to the study of publishing connotation and form different understandings.

Japanese scholars believe that "a series of acts of copying manuscripts, pictures, photographs and other works by mechanical or chemical methods such as printing, sorting them into various forms of publications and publishing them to the public are collectively called publishing." (Note: China Publishing Science Research Institute. Edited practical encyclopedia. Beijing: China Book Publishing House,1994.7; 150; 16 1) British scholars believe that publishing means "providing books, maps, printed matter, photos, songs or other works copied by copying, printing or any other means to the public" (Note: Lin Suifang. Define the concept of publishing and strengthen the research of publishing. Research on Publishing and Distribution,1990 (6): 23; 15; 20)。 American scholars believe: "Publishing-the preparation, printing and production process of publications provided to the public in the form of printed matter or electronic media." (Note: Peng Jianyian. Introduction to publication. Changchun: Jilin University Press,1992.8)1971published universal copyright convention defines a publishing house as "the act of reproducing a work that can be read or perceived visually in a tangible form and spreading the copy to the public." (Note: China Publishing Science Research Institute. Edited practical encyclopedia. Beijing: China Book Publishing House,1994.7; 150; 16 1) Korean scholars believe that publishing is "for the purpose of dissemination or sale, printing manuscripts, documents or pictures, music scores, etc. for publication and distribution" (Note: Lin Suifang. Define the concept of publishing and strengthen the research of publishing. Publishing research, 1990 (6): 65438. 23; 15; 20)。

Although the definitions given by scholars in different countries are slightly different in words, the descriptions of the essential characteristics of publishing activities are very close. Scholars all over the world believe that the connotation of publishing activities consists of the following contents: ① Publishing is the process of turning existing works into publications; (2) Original works must go through a lot of copying process before they can form a certain carrier form and become publications; Providing these publications to the public in a certain way is also an indispensable part of publishing activities.

Compared with foreign scholars' understanding of the connotation of publishing activities, there are obvious differences in the understanding of the connotation of publishing activities in domestic publishing circles. Several representative views of domestic scholars on the connotation of publishing are as follows: ① "Any work that prints words, pictures or other symbols on paper or books or newspapers is called publishing." (Note: Zhao. Publish a dictionary. Beijing: China Book Publishing House,1991.3; 104 ~ 105) ② "Printing and editing crops into books and newspapers." (Note: Editorial Board of Cihai. Cihai (abridged version). Shanghai: Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House,1980; 1094)③ "Print books, periodicals, pictures, etc." (Note: Editorial Board of Chinese Dictionary. Chinese dictionary. Wuhan: Hubei Dictionary Publishing House, Chengdu: Sichuan Dictionary Publishing House, 1998.5)④ "Publishing means that publishing organizations select and sort out human thinking achievements and materials according to certain policies and plans, endow them with certain material forms through publishing and production, and then spread them to the society." (Note: Que Daolong, practical editor. Beijing: China Book Publishing House, 1985)⑤ Publishing means "editing and processing a work, then copying it and distributing it to the public" (Note: Article 19 1.6 of the State Council's Regulations on the Implementation of the Copyright Law of People's Republic of China (PRC)). ⑥ "The so-called publication is a series of behaviors of selecting and sorting crops, copying them to specific carriers through certain production methods, and spreading them to the society in the form of publications." (Note: Peng Jianyian. Introduction to publication. Changchun: Jilin University Press, 1992.9)⑦ "Publishing means printing crops into books, periodicals, magazines and other printed materials through publishing channels, pushing these spiritual products to the society and supplying them to readers." (Note: Yan, Sang Baian. Dictionary of book distribution. Nanchang: Jiangxi University Press, 1992. 12) Today's publication refers to "all kinds of works in society, including manuscripts, pictures, materials, audio-visual products, etc. Collect, check, select, edit and process in publishing institutions. 150; 16 1)。

There are two kinds of views on the connotation of publishing activities in China: one is that publishing activities are mainly the printing of publications, and all of the above views belong to this type. This traditional view, which has been the mainstream in China publishing industry for a long time, was formed under the condition of long-term planned division of labor in China publishing practice. Excluding publishing activities from publishing lacks a description of the most critical part of publishing connotation-the purpose of publishing. Obviously, this view is incomplete in expressing the connotation of publishing. The other point of view absorbs the reasonable understanding of publishing connotation in foreign publishing circles, and gives a comprehensive description of the connotation of publishing activities in combination with the characteristics that China's publishing industry attaches great importance to editing work. These expressions have gradually approached the international publishing community's understanding of publishing activities. Lin Suifang put forward four conditions for transforming a work into a publication in the relevant entries written for the practical encyclopedia of editing: ① the edited content is suitable for reading or absorption; ② It has a certain material form; (3) after copying; ④ Distribution to the public, such as sale and lease (Note: China Publishing Science Research Institute. Edited practical encyclopedia. Beijing: China Book Publishing House,1994.7; 150; 16 1)。 This can be regarded as a representative description of the second viewpoint's understanding of publishing activities.

Based on the convergence opinions of experts at home and abroad on the connotation of publishing activities, we believe that the connotation of publishing activities should be composed of the following basic characteristics.

Publishing (1) is a social activity to deeply develop existing works. Publishing is not the development of original information, but the development of ready-made works. The task of accepting original information, reducing it to knowledge and forming knowledge products has been completed by the author, or mainly by the author. The formation process of existing works belongs to the author's labor process, not to publishing activities. Writers create, painters sketch, musicians compose, etc. It's not published, that's why.

(2) Publishing is a process of editing and processing the original work to make it have published content suitable for readers. Although the publishing process is not the main formation process of knowledge information, it is a process of selecting knowledge information system, which is carried out according to the requirements suitable for readers' consumption. The knowledge information in the selected works should also be sorted out, supplemented and improved according to the same requirements, that is, the original work should be edited and processed through editing. Paper money is not a publication, printing paper money is not a publishing activity, or it is because the original work has not been edited and processed, thus lacking knowledge and information content for readers to consume.

(3) Publishing is a process of copying a large number of processed existing works to make them have a certain carrier form for readers to consume. No matter how to copy a work, it is a process to make the processed knowledge information have a carrier form for readers to consume. Only after a large number of copies can the knowledge and information contained in the works be accepted by many readers. Archival work also needs to edit and sort out the original works (documents), so that scattered materials can be edited into volumes for archiving, but archival work has not been published because there is no process of massive reproduction. In the commodity society, the process of mass reproduction of works is also the process of commodity production of publications.

(4) Publication includes the process of making publications public. It is also an important connotation of publishing activities to widely disseminate a large number of original works to readers through various means. Judging from the evolution of the word "publication" in the west, both French publisher and English Publish are derived from Latin Publiare, but the original meaning of Latin Publiare is "public". It can be seen that among the many meanings given to "publication", the meaning of "openness" has a special position.

Based on the above four characteristics, the author tries to describe the connotation of publishing activities with the following definitions: the so-called publishing is the process of copying knowledge and information products on a certain material carrier in the form of commodity production and making them widely spread.

Reference Assistant:/Calendar 28