[History of the Korean medical journals (1945-1995) - principally on the basic science journals]

The development of Korean medical journals is summarized as the following: 1) Until the early 1960s there were not basic medical journals except Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology (first issued in the year of 1958), so researchers of basic medical science had difficulty in publishing their articles. 2) Many of the basic medical journals made their first appearance around the mid-1960s, but the progress was not striking until the mid-1980s. 3) From the mid-1980s most of the journals rapidly developed in the aspect of quality as well as quantity. The increase in the number of issues per year and articles per an issue, and the increment of the articles written in English are remarkably found. The increase in the number of researchers, appropriate education and training, improvement of the research facilities, the growth of research fund, and increment of the international academic exchange are thought to be the main factors of such development. Besides those factors, the devotion of the editors of the journals played the important role.