Report of the Korean Journal of Urology Editorial Board Meeting 2014

Abstract

The 2014 Editorial Board Meeting of the Korean Journal of Urology (KJU) was held on 15 November 2014 in Seoul, Korea, during the Annual Meeting of the Korean Urological Association (KUA). There were various and heated discussions and comments about the current state and development strategies of the KJU. Professor Kwangsung Park, Editor-in-Chief of KJU, made the opening remarks and introduced the great news about the KJU. In July 2014, KJU began to be indexed in the MEDLINE database. The articles of KJU are indexed in MEDLINE back through the January 2014 issue. The assistant editor reported on the current state of KJU. The number of submissions to KJU has consistently increased, especially after publishing the KJU exclusively in English after 2009. Between January and October 2014, about 60% of the manuscripts submitted to KJU were from outside of Korea. Among them, 57.8% of manuscripts came from Asian countries, including Turkey, India, Iran, Japan, and China (Fig. 1). Approximately 30% of submissions were case reports and 59% of submissions were original articles. As the number of submissions has increased, the acceptance rate of the articles has gradually decreased. The overall acceptance rate was 59.9% in 2013 and 46.1% in 2014. The acceptance rates of original articles and case reports were 43.8% and 5.2% in 2014, respectively (Fig. 2). Professor Sun Huh, consulting editor of KJU, gave an invited lecture on "Metrics of KJU and Suggestion for Improvement of KJU." Authors from 17 countries published articles in the KJU between January and October 2014. The impact factor of KJU from the Web of Science and that from SCImago Journal began to increase dramatically in 2011 [1] and have gradually increased every year with the increasing number of citations of KJU. The KJU has already been established as an international journal, because more than 85% of the citations come from international researchers. Authors from 68 countries cited KJU articles published from January 2010 to October 2014 (Fig. 3). KJU has increased the number of editors to improve the peer review process. Many international celebrated scholars were invited as editorial board members. About half of the editorial board members are international researchers from 15 countries including China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Turkey, Australia, Italy, Austria, Canada, UK and USA. KJU decided to add a new topic "Genomics/Stem Cells in Urology," which is an emerging field in urological research. This topic can provide readers with a complete and comprehensive guide to urological research in genomics and stem cells. There were also many changes to the KJU website (http://www.kjurology.org). First, special features include online video clips and illustrations demonstrating newly developed surgical techniques, which can be accessed on the KJU website or by scanning a quick response code located on the title page of the article. Manuscripts containing video clips and illustrations are welcomed to further aid readers in delivering both academic knowledge and skills. Second, the "Video Interview with the Author" corner was constructed on the KJU website. Authors who published their articles in KJU could give audiovisual presentations of their data. Finally, KJU is profoundly grateful for the support of the authors, editorial members (Fig. 4), and participants who have been involved with the journal this year.