A journal article is a comprehensive account of a theoretical argument or proof of reproducible experimental results and statistical analyses conducted in accordance with the appropriate procedure and form. However, no matter how well written the article is, its value cannot be gauged without a reader (who peruses it), and other subsequent researchers who cite it (to maintain and protract its lifespan).
Journal editors should solicit papers of excellent quality to improve the academic level, enhance national and international recognition, and maintain the reputation of their journals by increasing the frequency of citations. Moreover, they should endeavor to publish high-quality journals through thorough management of all processes related to thesis publication. It is important to establish a framework to facilitate the submission of excellent papers by frequently managing objective indicators to evaluate the quality of journals and notifying readers. We would like to periodically disseminate the production and citation indicators of this journal to achieve this goal.
Korean Journal of Anesthesiology (KJA) was founded in 1968 as an official journal of the Korean Society of Anesthesiologists. It was published monthly until 2014 and bimonthly since 2015. KJA aims to publish high-quality clinical and scientific reports of all aspects of anesthesiology, critical care, and pain medicine.
In 2020, KJA received 690 articles (all types of submissions). Since 2018, the number of submissions has increased by 37% annually. KJA has published a total of 99 articles, which consisted of 8 editorials, 14 reviews, 4 statistical rounds, 26 clinical research articles, 4 experimental research articles, 13 case reports, 25 letters to the editor, and 5 articles belonging to other categories.
KJA has adopted a rapid review system since 2014, which ensures that the editorial team provides their final decision within 7 days. In the previous year, 65% of all submissions were rapidly rejected by this system. Finally, the acceptance rate was 12.1%, and the rejection rate was 86.2%. The 4-year (2017–2020) average acceptance rate was 15.0% and the rejection rate was 83.5%. The average duration between the date of receiving the manuscript and the first decision was 13.4 days. This statistic is an indication of the duration required for key activities in the process. We are immensely proud of our rapid review system and relatively fast decision time, since it gives authors more choices.
Bibliometric analyses were performed using the Bibliometrix (ver 3.0, an R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis) package program [1]. For production analysis, all paper published in KJA in 2020 were assessed using the source data collected from SCOPUS (http://www.scopus.com).
In 2020, the average number of citations per document was 1.303. The total number of authors was 364, authors per document was 4.28, and collaboration index was 4.17. The most productive authors are presented in Table 1. We appreciate their contributions toward KJA through this editorial. Table 2 depicts the countries of the 12 corresponding authors in 2020. The country-based frequency of publication was as follows: South Korea (40.0%), India (19.0%), the United States of America (15.8%), Singapore (5.3%), Italy (4.2%), and others. Table 3 contains the most frequently used keywords in 2020, which consisted of the keywords used by authors, Keywords-Plus, and words in the title. Keywords-Plus, which is available on the Web of Science platform, automatically extracts information from the metadata of a particular research field, because indexing terms also assist in the determination of the knowledge structure, although it may be less comprehensive in revealing the intrinsic aim of a study. It seems that KJA tends to focus primarily on subjects such as regional anesthesia, postoperative pain/analgesia, nerve blocks, and COVID-19 in 2020 based on the results of the author’s keywords.
The bibliometric information of articles that cited the papers published by KJA in 2020 was downloaded from the Web of Science database (Web of Science Core Collection database maintained by Clarivate Analytics. Access date: January 11, 2021) for citation analysis. Table 4 contains the most relevant sources that cited the reports published in KJA as references during 2020. Table 5 lists the 7 most cited papers published in KJA in 2020. The two most cited papers were a case report of an emergency cesarean section in a patient with COVID-19 and an anesthesia recommendation editorial for COVID-19 patients [2,3]. Last year, most journals mass produced COVID-19 related literature, and the citation of such studies has also increased. The next two most cited studies were two reports of ultrasound-guided regional blocks [4,5]. The surge in the interest in multimodal analgesia is thought to have had a synergistic effect on interest in the literature on various regional blocks.
Journals are competing endlessly for the attention of readers, considering that numerous papers are published every day. KJA will endeavor to strive to provide more useful information to its readers, as one of the journals that continues to grow in its field.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I sincerely appreciate not only all the authors who submitted the great works to KJA, but also all the editors and reviewers for their hard work throughout the year.
References
1. Aria M, Cuccurullo C. bibliometrix: An R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. J Informetr. 2017; 11:959–75.
2. Lee DH, Lee J, Kim E, Woo K, Park HY, An J. Emergency cesarean section performed in a patient with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2 -a case report. Korean J Anesthesiol. 2020; 73:347–51.
3. Kim HJ, Ko JS, Kim TY. Recommendations for anesthesia in patients suspected of COVID-19 Coronavirus infection. Korean J Anesthesiol. 2020; 73:89–91.
4. Salama ER. Ultrasound-guided bilateral quadratus lumborum block vs. intrathecal morphine for postoperative analgesia after cesarean section: a randomized controlled trial. Korean J Anesthesiol. 2020; 73:121–8.
Table 1.
Authors | Articles | Articles Fractionalized |
---|---|---|
Gabriel RA | 5 | 0.74 |
Lee J | 5 | 0.93 |
Lee S | 5 | 1.04 |
Lee DK | 4 | 1.75 |
Gupta N | 3 | 0.90 |
In J | 3 | 0.42 |
Kim JH | 3 | 0.45 |
Kim TY | 3 | 0.65 |
Kumar R | 3 | 0.67 |
Lim WY | 3 | 1.25 |
Table 2.
Table 3.
Table 4.
Table 5.
Paper | DOI | Total Citations |
---|---|---|
Lee DH, 2020 | 10.4097/kja.20116 | 37 |
Kim HJ, 2020 | 10.4097/kja.20110 | 21 |
Salama ER, 2020 | 10.4097/kja.d.18.00269 | 11 |
Gabriel RA, 2020 | 10.4097/kja.19332 | 4 |
Kmen K, 2020 | 10.4097/kja.19175 | 4 |
Boscolo A, 2020 | 10.4097/kja.19396 | 3 |
Bak H, 2020 | 10.4097/kja.d.19.00016 | 3 |