The high-quality development of scientific, technical, and medical (STM) journals is of great significance in promoting scientific and technological innovation, creating a globally competitive open innovation ecosystem, fostering new quality productive forces, and promoting Chinese-style modernization. In recent years, China's STM journals have made remarkable progress. Several China's journals have significantly increased their impact factors and international influence. The optimization of human resources to run the journals is ongoing, and the quality of the published articles continues to improve. However, to fundamentally change the situation of STM journals characterized by external dependence at both ends, and to promote the high-quality development of STM journals, we need to analyze and get right to the spot in tackling the pains and difficulties faced by STM journals from the perspective of production relations. This paper employs the basic theory and analytical method of historical materialism, through literature analysis and theoretical reasoning, to reveal the logic of production relations underlying the development of high-quality STM journals. It also identifies and analyzes the deficiencies of China's STM journals at the current stage of development. First, regarding ownership, there still exists the contradiction between public welfare and profitability, and between knowledge opening and intellectual property protection. Second, the problems in the relationship among key stakeholders have become an important factor restricting the high-quality development of STM journals, and discussion in this paper mainly focuses on the perspectives of the reviewing system and the communication channels between different subjects of industry, academia and research institutions. Finally, the contradictions in distribution relations also exert considerable impact on the construction of high-quality STM journals, and the distribution problem can be divided into the one between STM journals and their associated industrial chains, and the other among different subjects within the academic community of STM journals. To address these challenges, the experiences of domestic and international first-class STM journals can offer valuable insights. By reforming the ownership structures of STM journals and innovating the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption aspects of the relations of production in scientific and technical knowledge, we can better leverage the role of new production relations in promoting the construction of high-quality STM journals.