J Dent Rehabil Appl Sci.  2025 Aug;41(3):177-187. 10.14368/jdras.2025.41.3.177.

Analysis of research papers on dentistry in Korea over the recent five years (2019 - 2023)

• Seo MS
• Hwang SJ

• KMID: 2577000
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.14368/jdras.2025.41.3.177

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate and evaluate Korean dental research papers published in English over the past five years (2019 to 2023).
Materials and Methods
A systematic search of the papers was conducted using the Medline/PubMed database. Papers published between 2019 and 2023, in which the main author was affiliated with a dental institution in Korea, were collected. In order to distinguish between papers related to dentistry, Medical Subject Heading, consisting of 229 keywords, was used. The following data were investigated in each paper: type of study; main subject; name of the journal, publisher; year of publication; number of authors; institution of the main author.
Results
The number of Korean dental papers searched through PubMed was 4,594, and it increased to its peak in 2021 and then decreased. There were more papers published in non-specialized journals than in dental journals, and most of them were published in SCIE journals with high quartiles. Half of the papers were published in dental schools in Seoul.
Conclusion
This study is the first to comprehensively survey all English-language dental papers in Korea. If future studies are conducted to evaluate the quantity and quality of all dental papers using more diverse variables, it will be a great guide for the development of dentistry in Korea.

Keyword

dental research; dentistry; publications; Korean dental production