Internationalization of Medical Journals in Korea

Huh, Sun

Abstract

To achieve internationalization of medical journals published in Korea, not only the quality of papers but also the style and format of many journals require improvement. For the world-wide dissemination of journal content, it should be published in English at first. Digital object identifiers, electronic international standard serial number (eISSN), high quality journal homepages, manuscript editing, good design and layout, attention to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, participation in CrossCheck, a fully internationalized editorial board, and indexing in PubMed Central should be considered for the editorial quality and readability. To increase citation rates of journals, citable reviews and original articles should be a priority. Top-quality invited review articles are helpful, and editors should adhere to minimum criteria for accepted articles. In Korea, since the vast majority of researchers now submit their work to international journals, it will soon become difficult for editors to gather enough submissions if their Korea-based journals do not become international journals indexed in the Web of Science or Scopus. It is time to launch a project for the internationalization of medical journals published by academic societies in Korea. This is necessary not only for the improvement of journal quality but also for the dissemination of valuable medical information from Korea to the world.