About Journal of Gems and Gemmology

Journal of Gems and Gemmology

The Journal of Gems and Gemmology is China's specialist scholarly journal for gemmology, published in Chinese from Wuhan in Hubei Province. Founded in 1999, it is supervised by the Ministry of Education and hosted by China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), with its editorial office at the university's Gemmological Institute in Wuhan. It carries ISSN 2096-9120 and the Chinese standard serial number CN 42-1909/TS. The journal publishes research on gem materials, diamond and jade, gem testing technology, synthesis and treatment, and the jewellery industry. Its archive, published on its official site at jogg.cug.edu.cn, runs from Volume 1 in 1999 through Volume 28 in 2026, and the journal has been officially included in the Scopus database, as announced on its official site. The chief editor named in the journal's records is Andy Hsitien Shen.

Founding and Institutional Home

The journal was founded in 1999, and its first volume appeared that year; the second issue of Volume 1 carried papers on the origin and occurrence of beryllium-bearing gem minerals of granitic pegmatite, jadeite jade from the western Sayan deposit in Russia, blue chalcedony from Taiwan, illite jade discovered in Hubei Province, pyrope from Yunnan Province, and the identification of treated jade by Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry — a contents list that already displays the journal's enduring mix of gem deposit geology, Chinese gem materials and laboratory identification science. Its institutional home is the Gemmological Institute of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). That institute was established with the approval of the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources of the People's Republic of China as an institution of higher education to cultivate jewellery professional talents, promote jewellery technology and serve the jewellery industry. The institute issued the first GIC Gemologist Diploma in China in 1993 and established the Gemological Quality Supervision and Inspection Center in Hubei Province the same year. It commenced undergraduate education in 1994, began enrolling postgraduate students in 1999 — the year the journal was founded — and established China's first doctoral programme in gemmology in 2004, when it also hosted the 29th International Gemological Conference. The journal thus grew directly out of the institute's teaching and inspection work.

Scope: Gem Materials and Deposit Geology

A first major strand of the journal's coverage is the geology and characterisation of gem materials themselves. Papers describe new or little-studied gem materials from Chinese localities and from abroad, report the mineralogy and chemistry of coloured stones, diamond, jade and organic gems such as pearl and amber, and examine how geological setting controls gem quality. The journal's published archive illustrates the range: studies of ruby and sapphire deposit types and prospecting directions in China, of hydrothermal synthetic rubies from Guilin, of freshwater cultured pearls and their surface microtopography, of nitrogen platelets in diamond crystals from Shandong Province, of Nanhong agate from Baoshan classified by colour, of trapiche phenomena in gemstones including trapiche garnets, and of amber co-occurring with coal seams in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar. Because China University of Geosciences is one of China's leading earth-science universities, the journal's deposit-geology papers connect gemmology to mainstream mineralogy, petrology and ore geology, giving the title a scientific depth that purely trade-oriented jewellery publications do not attempt.

Scope: Testing, Synthesis and Treatment

A second defining strand is laboratory gemmology: the testing technology by which natural, synthetic and treated stones are distinguished. From its earliest issues the journal has published identification research, including infrared spectroscopy of treated jade and X-ray diffraction topography applied to gems. Later volumes document the modern instrumental repertoire of the gem laboratory — Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, electron probe microanalysis, ultraviolet-visible absorption spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy and non-destructive methods such as external-beam proton-induced X-ray emission and portable X-ray fluorescence, the latter applied to the scientific discrimination of ancient gem cultural relics excavated from tombs of the Spring and Autumn period, the Eastern Han dynasty and the Tang dynasty. Synthesis and enhancement form the counterpart theme: papers on beryllium-diffused sapphire appearing on gem markets, on synthetic ruby growth and on treatments that affect value and disclosure keep the journal aligned with the daily concerns of testing laboratories and the trade. This testing focus reflects the editorial office's location inside an institute that also operates a gemological quality supervision and inspection centre.

Jade, Diamond and China's Gem Heritage

Jade occupies a special place in the journal, as it does in Chinese material culture. Papers have addressed the definition and texture types of jadeite jade, the clarity grading relevant to the value appraisal of Shoushan stone, the discovery and study of illite jade in Hubei, and the long history of jade culture in China from the formation of Chinese civilisation onward. Diamond research is likewise a recurring theme, from the distribution of nitrogen defects in Shandong diamonds to the mineral crystal resources of skarn deposits. The journal also publishes work on ornamental and carving stones, such as Ruyuan colour stone from Guangdong Province, and on historic and archaeological gems, where modern non-destructive analysis is used to correct earlier misidentifications of excavated amazonite, lapis lazuli and coloured glaze once assumed to be turquoise or glaze. In this way the journal serves both the contemporary gem trade and the scholarly study of China's gem heritage.

The Jewellery Industry and Education

Beyond laboratory and field science, the journal covers the jewellery industry itself: industry economics, exhibition marketing strategies for international jewellery fairs, jewellery design — including the comparison of commercial and artistic design — and traditional crafts such as kingfisher-feather work examined for their cultural roots and future direction. A review published in the journal's second volume surveyed a decade of development across gem resources prospecting, gem testing, synthetic gems, enhancement and treatment techniques, industry economics and jewellery education, and the journal has continued to publish retrospectives on the building of modern jewellery education in China, which grew over thirty years from short-term training into a complete degree system. More recent volumes include papers on integrating ideological and political education into disciplinary teaching and on the correspondence between the gemmology curriculum and graduation requirements under engineering education accreditation — evidence that the journal also functions as a forum for the professional education community centred on its host institute, which describes itself as the first institution in China to offer the complete sequence of undergraduate, master's and doctoral education in jewellery disciplines.

Publication Record and Archive

The journal's volume sequence is continuous and publicly archived in both Chinese and English interfaces on its official site. Volume 1 appeared in 1999 and Volume 2 in 2000, with early issues already carrying English-language abstracts and contents for international readers. The archive proceeds through Volume 10 in 2008, Volume 13 in 2011, Volume 15 in 2013, Volume 16 in 2014 and Volume 17 in 2015, and reaches Volume 27 in 2025 and Volume 28 in 2026. Each issue mixes research articles on gem materials and testing with papers on deposits, industry and education. The completeness of the online archive — browsable issue by issue back to the founding volume — makes the journal unusually accessible for a Chinese-language specialist title, and allows researchers to trace three decades of change in Chinese gemmology, from the market reforms that expanded the jewellery industry in the 1990s to the accreditation-era curriculum debates of the 2020s.

Indexing and Standing

The journal was officially included in the Scopus database, an inclusion announced on its official site, jogg.cug.edu.cn. Scopus indexing places the title within the international abstracting system used by researchers and evaluators worldwide, and it is a significant marker for a Chinese-language journal in a small, specialised field where much of the literature appears in trade magazines rather than peer-reviewed journals. Within China, the journal's standing rests on its supervision by the Ministry of Education, its hosting by a leading geosciences university, and its position as the scholarly journal of the country's pioneering gemmological institute — the institute that issued China's first gemologist diploma, founded its first gemmology doctoral programme and hosted the International Gemological Conference in 2004. Researchers citing the journal should use its full English title, Journal of Gems and Gemmology, with ISSN 2096-9120, and note its Wuhan base to distinguish it from similarly named gemmological publications in other countries.

Readership and Significance

The Journal of Gems and Gemmology serves a readership that few other journals reach simultaneously: academic gemmologists and mineralogists, staff of gem testing and inspection laboratories, jewellery designers and manufacturers, educators in gemmology programmes, and scholars of Chinese jade and gem heritage. Its significance lies in having provided, since 1999, a peer-reviewed Chinese-language home for a field that sits between earth science, analytical chemistry, materials technology and a major consumer industry. The journal documents how Chinese gemmology professionalised — through diploma and degree education, through inspection centres and standardised testing, and through research on the deposits, treatments and synthetics that determine value in the market. For the WorldNM directory's magazines category it represents the scholarly-journal end of China's gem and jewellery media: not a consumer magazine, but the research record of the institute that trained much of China's gemmological profession.