Citation Activity of Journal of Korean Medical Science in 2011–2020: Reflection on the Most and Least Cited Items

BACKGROUND: The Journal of Korean Medical Science (JKMS) is a weekly periodical published by the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences. JKMS invites global researchers to submit articles covering various areas in general medicine. The present article’s aim was to analyze citations of JKMS articles in 2011–2020 for updating editorial policies. METHODS: Citation records of JKMS articles were tracked in Web of Science (WoS), Clarivate(®) from August 2021 to June 2022. RESULTS: In 2011–2020, JKMS published 2,880 articles, including 2,757 (96.0%) ever cited. All reviews (57/57) and 96% of original research reports (2,184 out of 2,264) received at least one citation. Brief communications, opinions, and images were least cited items. Of 36 subject categories covered by JKMS, only biomedical engineering was significantly less advantageous citation-wise. Five articles published in 2012–2017 attracted more than 100 citations. Most other articles were cited less than 50 times. Article categories of nationwide epidemiology, disease or patient registries, clinical trials, and infectious diseases were distinguished as well cited. Of 378 articles published in 2020, 10 were cited at least 100 times; all these ten items were related to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and coronavirus disease 2019. In the past 5 years, studies on health care laws, management, and some specific topics in clinical specialties were not cited. The citation trends in WoS, Crossref, and Scopus were similar while PubMed Central records were roughly twice less. CONCLUSION: Most of JKMS articles are cited during 5 years post publication, with 1.4% non-citation rate. The obtained results suggest that inviting review articles in clinical sciences, research reports on hot medical topics, and nationwide database analyses may attract more author interest and related citations.