Science Editing

Original Articles

Impact factor surge in Korean medical journals during the COVID-19 era: a bibliometric study: Chansu Park, Sejin Park, Hyeonseok Seo, Janghyeog Oh, Dongryeong Kim, Junha Kang, Hanul Kang, Hyunsung Kang, Yaechan Kim, Mi Ah Han; Sci Ed. 2024;11(1):55-61. Published online December 18, 2023; DOI: https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.320

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Abstract PDF Supplementary Material: Purpose: The multiyear COVID-19 pandemic has affected the volume and speed of publications in scientific journals. This study evaluated trends in the impact measures of international medical journals published in Korea, including the journal impact factor (JIF).
Methods
We selected Science Citation Index Expanded journals with the country/region set to Korea and the academic category classified as “clinical medicine” in Journal Citation Reports. Trends in indicators such as the JIF and Journal Citation Indicator (JCI) were assessed for journals with JIF information from 2018 to 2022. Ratios and differences between the measures were calculated to determine the extent of the change.
Results
We identified 43 journals, and the average JIF of those journals increased from 2.33 in 2018 and 2.50 in 2019 to 3.45 in 2020 and 3.86 in 2021. Other measures, such as the 5-year JIF and JCI, steadily increased, and the proportion of gold open access journals also increased significantly. However, the JCI and Eigenfactor scores remained steady or showed relatively small increases. Furthermore, impact measures declined in 2022, including a JIF decrease to 3.55.
Conclusion
We presented trends in quantitative measurements for international medical journals in Korea, and found an overall increase. Journals need to maintain a rigorous publication process to improve the quality of their research and the research community needs to exercise caution when using quantitative measures to evaluate journals. Further research is required to examine the quantitative indicators of journals, including their publication policies, research topics, and long-term trends.

Publishing trends of journals and articles in Journal Citation Reports during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive study: Sang-Jun Kim, Kay Sook Park; Sci Ed. 2023;10(1):78-86. Published online February 16, 2023; DOI: https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.300

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Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the changes that occurred in journal and article publishing during the noncontact period that started in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Methods
The integrated journal list in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 2017–2021 and the search results of Web of Science were analyzed using pivot tables in Microsoft Excel. The articles, citations, impact factor (IF), publishers, open access (OA) status, and compound annual growth rate (CAGR) were investigated using the data.
Results
The CAGRs of articles, citations, and IFs in JCR journals increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the increase in OA articles was accompanied by a decreasing share of subscription articles. The top 20 journals in JCR-SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded), based on the number of articles, accepted OA policies and showed a strong influence, accounting for 7% to 9% of all articles. MDPI and Frontiers were OA publishers included among the top 10 publishers. Large publishers maintained their competitiveness through mergers and acquisitions with OA publishers. Due to the rapid distribution of OA and early access articles as part of the international response to overcome COVID-19, the CAGRs of citations and IFs increased more than that of articles, and the publication and use of journal articles have become more active.
Conclusion
The publication and use trends in JCR journals analyzed herein will provide useful information for researchers’ selection of journals for article submission, analyses of research performance, and libraries’ journal subscription contracts.

Citations

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Trends in research on ChatGPT and adoption-related issues discussed in articles: a narrative review
Sang-Jun Kim
Science Editing.2023; 11(1): 3. CrossRef

Current status of Science Citation Index Expanded listing of Korean medical journals and effect of PubMed electronic publication ahead of print to their impact factors: Jae Jun Shim, Byung-Ho Kim; Sci Ed. 2016;3(2):94-99. Published online August 20, 2016; DOI: https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.72

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Abstract PDF: This year marked the twentieth anniversary of the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors (KAMJE). The number of member journals has increased from 105 to 257 since its inception in 1996. In the same period, the number of journals listed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) has increased from zero to 35. The average journal impact factor (JIF) that was initially 0.13 has now increased by more than tenfold on average to 1.45 as of 2014. Many KAMJE journals that are not indexed in the SCIE are putting their best effort towards eventual inclusion. Following listing with SCIE, however, editors have turned their attention towards the JIF and have shown interest in early online publication as a means of improving the JIF. The current status of PubMed electronic publication ahead of print (EAP) was surveyed among KAMJE journals that are indexed in the SCIE, and the impact of this EAP on the improvement of the JIF was investigated. Based on the survey, more than half of the members have started or are planning on implementing EAP. However, these efforts were found to be still in their infancy, and they have been insufficient to serve as a basis for scientific analysis. Since the sample size is too small and the implementation period too short to statistically analyze the effects of early publication on the JIF, a case-by-case approach was taken. Based on case studies, it is difficult to draw conclusions yet about whether online early publication enhances the JIF.

Increased citation of Korean scholarly journals during the years 2008 to 2013: Eun Seong Hwang; Sci Ed. 2016;3(1):13-18. Published online February 19, 2016; DOI: https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.57

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Abstract PDF: Korean academic journals are registered in Korea Citation Index, a government-operated journal indexing system. There has been a constant increase in registry, but whether this change accompanies an increase in quality of the journals has not been determined. In this study, by using the index data of Korea Citation Index, status of journal citation in eight different research fields during the years 2008 to 2013 was analyzed. Impact factors of top 50% journals and the number of the journals with high impact factor increased in all the fields, while the number of journals with low impact factor decreased. The change varied in degree among the different fields, and that in social science and medicine was most positive. These changes appear not to be caused by an increase in self citation, although self citation itself is quite high. International citation of the journals also substantially increased in the fields of science, technology, and medicine. These results indicate a genuine increase in the quality of papers and an improvement in citability of the journals published in Korea. This positive change could be attributed to several factors that include the quality of the information in the papers and the environments that encourage the citation of domestic journals.

Pattern of reference types and impact factors of journals in the Korea Citation Index according to academic discipline: So-Hyeong Kim; Sci Ed. 2015;2(1):10-13. Published online February 28, 2015; DOI: https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.29

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Abstract PDF

The Korea Citation Index (KCI) is a citation database for scholarly journals from Korea, the number of journals of which is 2,168 in January, 2015. This article aims to analyze the pattern of reference types and impact factors of journals in the KCI according to academic discipline. Journals of the KCI were classified according to academic discipline: humanities, arts and sports, social science, science, and multi-disciplinary science. Science journals were sub-classified as natural science, engineering, agriculture & fisheries, and medical health. The pattern of reference types was classified as journal article, book, report/thesis/internet, and others. Changing patterns of the two-year impact factor were described according to the publication year of journals in each discipline. The reference type of each discipline in 2010 showed different patterns. In humanities, the portion of books out of cited literatures was 51.1%, while the portion of books in natural science, engineering, medical health, and agriculture & fisheries fields were 11.0%, 10.0%, 7.0%, and 11.0%, respectively. In social science, the portion of journal articles was 53.1% and books 27.3%. In medical health, the portion of journal article was 87.6%. Journals’ average impact factors in 2011 were 0.9 for social science, 0.8 for arts and sports, 0.55 for interdisciplinary, 0.5 for agriculture and fisheries and humanities, 0.45 for natural science, 0.32 for engineering, and 0.3 for medical health. Researchers in humanities in Korea use books as a primary source of references, while those in other disciplines use journals as a major source of references. Higher impact factors in social science journals and lower ones in science journals mean that social scientists in Korea deal with mainly domestic topics, while scientist deal with global topics.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Position of Ultrasonography in the scholarly journal network based on bibliometrics and developmental strategies for it to become a top-tier journal
Sun Huh
Ultrasonography.2020; 39(3): 238. CrossRef

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