Editorial Announcement Regarding Title Change of the Korean Journal of Laboratory Medicine to Annals of Laboratory Medicine

Abstract

On behalf of the editorial board, I am pleased to announce the title change of "The Korean Journal of Laboratory Medicine (KJLM; ISSN, 1598-6535)" to "Annals of Laboratory Medicine (Ann Lab Med; ISSN, 2234-3806; eISSN, 2234-3814)" [1]. From volume 32, issue 1 (printed version that will be released in January 2012), the journal will be published under the new title "Annals of Laboratory Medicine" with a new cover and layout. The "Ann Lab Med," under its new name, will succeed KJLM as the official journal of the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine (KSLM) [2]. The KJLM has been indexed both in Medline®/PubMed® and Science Citation Index Expanded® (SCIE) since 2007. Journal Citation Report ® (JCR®) 2010 impact factor (IF) of KJLM has increased to 0.660 from 0.626 in 2009. The Korean Journal of Clinical Pathology was created in 1981 as the official journal of the Korean Society for Clinical Pathology. Immediately after the name of the society was changed to the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine in 2003, the journal title was changed to KJLM. Our journal has been a member of the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors [3] and KoreaMed [4], and we have endeavored to maintain the high quality of the journal. Since the KSLM has launched a new official journal in 2011, namely, "Laboratory Medicine Online (eISSN, 2093-6338)," which is published only in Korean [5], the KSLM has expanded the readership of KJLM by publishing the journal in English. KJLM has been indexed in PubMed Central in 2011. KJLM publishes Open Access articles distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License. The Ann Lab Med will continue to follow and apply the uniform requirements for the manuscripts (URM) submitted to biomedical journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors [6]. We will continue to follow the publication ethics based on the research ethics. As recent developments in biomedical research and technology have brought about dramatic changes in the health care system, laboratory medicine has become an important discipline that plays pivotal roles in the diagnosis and management of diseases. To ensure optimum and efficient health care, we need to follow the best guidelines for developing valuable product of evidence-based laboratory medicine [7]. As in the case of many other journals [8], the main reason for renaming KJLM is to broaden the readership and expand the audience for the publication. The population of Asia accounts for more than 60% of the world's human population, but relatively little laboratory medicine research has been conducted in Asia compared to the western countries. Researchers and clinicians from developing countries conducting well-designed studies in the field of laboratory medicine are encouraged to submit important findings to our journal. We welcome laboratory medicine and related biomedical research articles about new and important topics that investigate the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases; which are scientific, original, ethical, and of academic significance. I look forward to publishing a great number of articles in the areas of Diagnostic Hematology, Clinical Chemistry, Clinical Microbiology, Diagnostic Immunology, Transfusion Medicine, Diagnostic Genetics, Laboratory Informatics, and General Laboratory Medicine. The editorial staff, including the associate editors (Professors Jong Hee SHIN, Junghan SONG, Young-Ae LIM, Young Kyung LEE, and Kyung-A LEE), assistant editor (Professor Heejung KIM), and manuscript editor (Ms Jihyun Lee), will make every effort for rapid screening of submitted articles and for ensuring early and prudent decisions regarding these articles. We are grateful to all editorial board members from all over the world for their contribution to improve the journal and to select the new journal title. In order to diversify the editorial board, we plan to recruit editorial board members from many different disciplines as well as from different geographic regions. We believe that a strong editorial board is indicative of the quality of a journal and the basis for its development. I appreciate our statistical advisors (Professors Chung Mo NAM, Moo Song LEE, Dong Jae KIM, Seon Woo KIM, and Dae Ryong KANG) for their excellent review of high-quality articles. I owe much to Professor Myoung Hee PARK for her excellent English and scientific editing of all accepted articles. I also appreciate Chairman, Professor Won-Ki MIN and all other current and former members of the board of directors of the KSLM for their excellent support for publication and giving us much editorial freedom regarding the Ann Lab Med. Finally, I hope the Ann Lab Med will make fundamental contributions to the field of laboratory medicine in order to improve health care worldwide.