The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences said its English scientific publication, the Journal of Korean Medical Science (JKMS), saw its impact factor (IF) soar to 5.354 in 2021, compared to 2.153 in 2020.

The impact factor is based on the number of times an average paper in a journal is cited in a year, which subsequently influences its ranking.

JKMS was cited 10,929 times by all SCI journals last year.

“It is very unusual for the IF to rise by three points in a year,” the academy said. “We think this is because the journal had published online research papers, including those related to Covid-19, every week on time to spread new research to the global medical community promptly since 2018.”

With the increase in IF, the quartile ranking in the category of SCI General Medicine for the journal rose from Q3 to Q2 to be ranked 46th out of 172 journals, according to the academy. The 172 journals belonging to the General Medicine category include global journals like NEJM, JAMA, Lancet, Science, and Nature.

JKMS’ entry into Q2 is a very encouraging indicator of its status and the level of medical research in Korea, the academy said.

For instance, JKMS was the first to report the first Korean patient with monkeypox on July 11 for the first time among the domestic journals. In addition, the reports of patient symptoms from the onset of genital ulcerative skin lesions leading to fever and systemic skin rashes can be publicly accessed on the JKMS website (https://jkms.org/index.php).

The academy added that it would quickly address international issues, introduce diverse research contents to domestic and foreign researchers and consolidate the journal’s position as Korea's leading comprehensive medical journal.