Ten years have passed since I took on the role of the Editor-in-Chief, at the request of the President of the Kaorean Association of Orthodontists (KAO), in March 2012. The KJO is the flagship institutional journal of the Korean Association of Orthodontists and the first and only Asian orthodontic journal to be indexed in JCR, both in 2009 and until today. Back in 2012, the journal had a very low impact factor (IF). The IF, which was in the 0.8 range in 2010, dropped to 0.3 in 2013. However, it gradually improved, thanks to the combined efforts of the editorial board, including the editorial director, and myself. In 2017, the IF reached 1.617. As it has slowly fallen since then, I believe it is time for new motivation and opportunities for growth.

In a social atmosphere where quantified performance is used as an indicator of value, IF represents the standard for evaluating academic journals. However, it does not reflect the whole story—the values pursued by the KJO, which include the academic depth that comes from a long societal tradition (the KJO will be 52 years old this year), cannot be expressed by IF. Its academic authority is also extremely important.

I am proud to say that the KJO has always adhered to strong values, including fairness in the review process, a progressive academic outlook, and a comprehensive approach to the field of clinical orthodontics, avoiding a limited focus on any specific field. We have maintained an Open Access policy, giving researchers and clinicians unrestricted access to academic papers. KJO is indexed in various databases, including PubMed Central, JCR, SCOPUS, and KoreaMed, to make it easier for researchers to find and access the literature. In the future, I hope the KJO will continue to move forward and strengthen its position as a representative academic journal of global orthodontics, comparable to the journals of other world-class orthodontic societies.

In retrospect, we have seen many small and significant changes in the past decade. Every year, the editorial board holds discussions to plan various improvements, such as continuously renewing the website to improve visibility and usability; introducing various measures to ensure fairness in the review process; taking bold steps to become an English-only paper; contributing to the global orthodontics community, despite being the institutional journal of the Korean Association of Orthodontists; continuously emphasizing publication and research ethics; and, most recently, switching to an online-only format to reflect the online era. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the editors who have achieved these excellent results, working in a less-than-ideal environment without complaint. I am very grateful to the Korean Association of Orthodontists, who provided generous financial support, while fiercely protecting the independence of the editorial board. On behalf of the editorial board, I would like to thank the authors who submitted their valuable manuscripts to the KJO and the reviewers who generously donated their time and talents to promote academic development. The KJO would not be here today without your hard work and dedication.

Finally, I hope this initiative will provide the KJO’s new Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Theodore Eliades, and the editorial board an opportunity to take a leap forward. I am deeply grateful to the many people who have helped me along the way. Special thanks to the Editorial directors (Dr. Sung, Dr. Cha and Dr. Kang) who were with me along the last ten years.

March 25th, 2022

Hyoung-Seon Baik, DDS, MS, PhD

Editor in Chief, Kor. J Orthod.

Emeritus Professor, Yonsei Univ.