A Giant Leap toward a Renowned International Journal

Starting with the January issue of 2010, the Korean Journal of Urology became an entirely English-language journal. This was a historical event in the Korean Urological Association, because the official language of the journal changed from Korean to English. The Korean Journal of Urology was first published in 1960. The Korean title of the journal was the 'Taehan Pinyogikwa Hakhoe Chapchi,' but with the August 1979 issue, it was renamed as the 'Taehan Pinyogikwa Hakhoe chi.' In February 2009, the title of the journal was changed to the English 'Korean Journal of Urology' to increase the international recognition of the journal [1]. Owing to the recognition of its scientific excellence, the Korean Journal of Urology (KJU) was indexed in SCOPUS and EMBASE, which are international scientific search engines on the web, in 2008. The KJU is a peer-reviewed, monthly publication covering clinical and basic science information relevant to physicians and researchers in the field of urology. Because the incidences, characteristics, and management of diseases vary according to region and race, the KJU will provide international readers access to Asian data on various urological diseases. The topics of the KJU include urological oncology, laparoscopy/robotics, lasers in urology, voiding dysfunction, female urology, sexual dysfunction, male infertility, pediatric urology, investigative urology, and results of innovative treatments, providing readers with an up-to-date guide to international developments in urology. Starting in 2010, we will publish special features including online video clips and illustrations of newly developed surgical techniques. When the KJU became an entirely English journal, we invited 10 international editorial board members from Asia-Pacific areas who are highly qualified world leaders in each field. We will continuously invite world- renowned editorial board members and reviewers. The Information for Authors of the KJU was revised in January 2010. The Journal publishes original articles, invited review articles, illustrated surgical techniques in urology, case reports, and letters to the editor in the fields of clinical and experimental urology. We reinforced the research and publication ethics. Any research that deals with a clinical trial is recommended to be registered with a primary national clinical trial registration site or other sites accredited by the WHO or the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Recently, we were awarded a grant for globalization of the journal from the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies. This grant will support the KJU in becoming indexed in Pubmed Central and SCI(E). The KJU is currently a free access journal that opens in Google Scholar and will become an open access journal soon. This coming year, the editorial team of the KJU will apply for our journal to be indexed in Pubmed Central and Medline. We hope that the KJU will soon be recognized among other high-quality, international, peer-reviewed journals.