We aimed to assess the distribution of research design, type, field and classification for the articles published in Korean Journal of Gynecologic Oncology and Colposcopy during recent 15 years.

A total of 473 papers published in Korean Journal of Gynecologic Oncology and Colposcopy from 1990 to 2004 were reviewed for retrospective descriptive analysis. First, all papers were analyzed according to the design, type, field of study. Then they were classified again depending on specific topics under the criteria used in science citation index journal, "Gynecologic Oncology". Articles presented at symposia were excluded from this analysis.

We observed that distribution in study design showed the inclination toward case series study (71.7%) and case report (26.8%). To the contrary, the numbers of cohort study and randomized controlled trial were five and one, respectively. The distributions of articles were 321 in survey, 6 in experiment, 7 in clinical trial. There were 12 articles belonging to overview of secondary research. Secondary classification based on study field revealed 108 articles in causation, 82 in diagnosis, 73 in therapy as descending order. There were 80 articles of molecular biology including immunology and tumor suppressor genes, 66 articles of cervical cancer, and 36 articles of epithelical ovarian cancer.

These results suggest that the reports on Korean Journal of Gynecologic Oncology and Colposcopy are mainly converged to case series studies in the design of study and survey in the type of study.