Foreign authors’ share increases in Korean medical journals due to yearlong pause of domestic research

A year-long medical turmoil caused by the medical school enrollment quota increase is shaking the foundation of medical research.

Professors have cut back on research time to treat patients at university hospitals, where trainee doctors have left. The number of medical papers has also plummeted. Korean medical journals are filling the void with articles by foreign authors.

The situation is evident in a paper titled “Insights Into JKMS Submissions and Medical Journal Publications in Korea,” which analyzed the publications and submissions of 58 medical journals in Korea. Professor Yoo Jin-hong of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine and Professor Jung Jae-hun of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Korea University College of Medicine co-wrote the paper.

The paper was published in the Journal of Korean Medical Science (JKMS), an international journal published by the Korean Medical Association.

The researchers analyzed the number of articles published by 58 Korean medical journals from 2010 to 2024. They also analyzed the number of submitted papers for JKMS, Korea's leading medical journal with the most submitted and published articles.

According to the analysis, the number of Korean papers submitted to JKMS in 2024, when there was a serious conflict between the government and the medical community due to the expansion of medical students, was lower than the previous year. A total of 807 papers were submitted from January to October 2024, 72 fewer than the same period of the previous year’s 879.

In January 2024, 92 papers were submitted, similar to the previous year (93), but the number gradually decreased. In February 2024, when the protocol conflict began, 72 papers were submitted to JKMS, 102 in March, 83 in April, 82 in May, 75 in June, 83 in July, 70 in August, 56 in September, and 92 in October. In 2023, there were 98 in March, 90 in April, 76 in May, 101 in June, 95 in July, 95 in August, 80 in September, and 66 in October.

The number of monthly submissions has plummeted over the past year except for March, May, and October.

“JKMS is the largest medical journal in Korea in terms of publication volume, and if the number of Korean articles submitted to JKMS has decreased, other medical journals will follow suit,” Professor Jung told Korea Biomedical Review over the phone on Friday.

The decline in domestic submissions has decreased the proportion of Korean authors in the total number of published articles. Although the number of papers submitted by foreign authors to Korean medical journals has been steadily increasing, the share of Korean authors in the total number of published papers has plummeted, especially in 2024, according to Professor Jung.

In 2010, 90 percent of the 2,453 articles published in Korean medical journals, or 2,216, were written by Korean authors. The share of Korean authors in published papers decreased by 1-2 percentage points per year from 85 percent in 2011 to 64 percent in 2023.

In 2024, however, the decline was larger (3 percentage points), dropping to 61 percent. While the number of Korean papers submitted to JKMS plummeted in 2024, the number of papers submitted by foreign authors surged. The surge in foreign-authored papers shows that “interest in JKMS is growing globally,” according to the researchers.

“Although the proportion of Korean authors in the total number of papers had been decreasing, it decreased even more in 2024,” Jung said. “The proportion of Korean authors in most papers published in domestic medical journals decreased significantly.”

In an editorial, Professor Yoo, also the editor-in-chief of JKMS, worried that the papers submitted in 2024 were written before the medical school expansion, which could lead to a “paper hiatus” soon.

“The bigger problem is that this is likely to be more than a short-term drop in productivity; the effects will be felt for years to come,” Yoo said.

The paper expressed similar concerns.

“Korean authors have submitted fewer papers in domestic medical journals, and their share of published papers has also declined,” its authors said, noting that this decline could be attributed to political factors, including the increase in medical students. “These political issues must be addressed for sustainable and competitive medical research in Korea.”