Past, present, and future of the Korean Journal of Medical Education

Article information

Korean J Med Educ. 2024;36(2):129-130

Publication date (electronic) : 2024 May 30

doi : https://doi.org/10.3946/kjme.2024.289

Department of Medical Education, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding Author: Su Jin Chae (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3060-8933) Department of Medical Education, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul 05505, Korea Tel: +82.2.3010.4242 Fax: +82.2.3010.4242 email: edujin1@ulsan.ac.kr

Received 2024 April 11; Revised 2024 April 11; Accepted 2024 April 26.

1. Introduction

The Korean Society of Medical Education was founded in May 1983 and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2023 [1]. The Korean Journal of Medical Education (KJME) is the official journal of the Korean Society of Medical Education. KJME started its first publication in June 1989 and has a history of 35 years. KJME was founded with the aim of identifying the current status and trends of medical education in Korea and exploring ways to develop it [2]. Over the past 35 years, KJME has been a leading journal in the field of medical education in Korea and has played a driving role in promoting the development and innovation of medical education in medical schools. It has also contributed greatly to publishing medical education research and promoting communication among researchers in Korea, which is a barren land for medical education research [3,4].

In order to promote its development as an international journal, KJME started to publish full-text articles in English in March 2016. Since June 2014, the journal has been available online, eliminating the print version. KJME provides full-text online from 1989 to the present, free of charge, to enhance accessibility and readability.

2. Milestones

KJME has been recognized as an excellent journal both nationally and internationally. Nationally, KJME was selected as an excellent journal in the 2017 evaluation of journals by the Korea Research Foundation, where only 34 journals out of a total of 5,420 were selected and has maintained its excellent status to date.

Internationally, KJME was included in PubMed Central in June 2016, following its inclusion in MEDLNE in 2015 and Scopus in 2019. This makes KJME the only medical education journal published in Korea to be indexed in PubMed, Scopus, Medline, KoreaMed, KoMCI, Google Scholar, and EBSCO. The Scopus citation score was 2.8, and the SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) journal impact factor was 0.49, indicating a steady increase. This is an internationally recognized achievement of which Korean medical education can be proud.

3. Status

KJME has been published 4 times a year since 2007, with a total of 648 articles published by 2023. There are various types of manuscript submissions, including original research, review articles, short communications, medical education in the Asian context, commentaries and opinions, personal views, teaching tips, and medical education in an age of uncertainty. By 2023, authors from 23 countries in Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America, and Africa had published articles.

KJME covers not only medicine, but also neighboring disciplines such as dentistry and nursing, at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as continuing education to provide a broader range of knowledge for doctors in training.

4. Expectations

KJME has become a journal that has grown steadily with the development of medical education in Korea over the past 35 years. This achievement has been made possible by the dedicated support and hard work of the past presidents and editorial board members. I express my sincere gratitude to the national and international reviewers who provided unpaid services to constructively review the submitted papers. We look forward to the future, as this has been a great time for KJME. As we prepare to transition to SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded) within the next 2 years, we seek for the help and active contributions of many professors at home and abroad who are committed to the development of medical education. We sincerely thank the authors, readers, editorial board members, and reviewers for their assistance with this letter.

Acknowledgements

None.

Notes

Funding

None

Conflicts of interest

Su Jin Chae has been an editor of the Korean Journal of Medical Education since January 2017. She was not involved in the editorial review. Except for that, no other potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Author contributions

All work was performed by Su Jin Chae.

References

1. Korean Society of Medical Education. 40 Year of the Korean Society of Medical Education Soeul, Korea: Kyungsung Media; 2023.

2. Kim S. Twenty years of the Korean Journal of Medical Education: past, present, and future. Korean J Med Educ 2009;21(1):1–2.

3. Lee YH, Lee YM, Kwon H. Trends analysis on research articles in the Korean Journal of Medical Education. Korean J Med Educ 2012;24(4):287–299.

4. Yoo HH, Shin S. Trends of research articles in the Korean Journal of Medical Education by social network analysis. Korean J Med Educ 2015;27(4):247–254.

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