Scientific Publication Productivity of Korean Plastic Surgeons: An Analysis of 1974-2000 SCI Papers

ABSTRACT

The aims of this paper are to identify where the quality research activity has been and is carried out in Korea, and to examine weather the Korean plastic surgeons have sufficient capacity to place their official journal "The Journal of Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons(KPRS)" to international databases. We investigated the publication productivity of all departments of plastic surgery in Korean medical colleges, hospitals, and clinics as measured by the number of papers in journals indexed in SCI(Science citation index). The 27 year period from 1974 to 2000 is covered. A total of 195 papers is published in SCI journals by the plastic surgeons in Korea. The first SCI paper was published in 1985; the number of publication has gradually increased. Since 1998, over 30 papers are annually published in SCI journals by Korean plastic surgeons. The production of SCI papers are concentrated in a few universities. About seventy percent of SCI journal papers is published by top seven medical schools; 25.6% by Yonsei university. In 1985, only one medical school was involved in the production of SCI journal papers. After 1997, however, more than 10 medical school and some surgeons in local clinics published SCI journal papers. The percent of SCI journal papers among all papers written by the Korean plastic surgeons increased recently About 15% are published in SCI journals in 1999 and 2000 respectively. These data suggest that Korean plastic surgeons have enough capacity to place their official journal KPRS into international data bases.