32(02) 103-104 
| Annals of Laboratory Medicine: Quantum Leap into the Higher Quality |
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| Junghan Song, M.D. | | Editor-in-chief, Annals of Laboratory Medicine·Department of Laboratory Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam | |
| Professor Jeong-Ho KIM resigned as Editor-in-chief of the Annals
of Laboratory Medicine (ALM)--formerly the Korean Journal of
Laboratory Medicine (KJLM)--at the beginning of 2012. During
his distinguished service in this position, the KJLM has been indexed
both in Medline?/PubMed?, Science Citation Index Expanded
? (SCIE), and Scopus?. In 2009, the Journal Citation Report
? (JCR?) 2010 impact factor (IF) of KJLM increased from
0.626 to 0.660 [1]. Beginning with the first issue of volume 32,
the journal has been published under the new title Annals of
Laboratory Medicine and has been provided with a contemporary
cover and a more reader-friendly layout [1]. With the change
of the journal title, several manuscript submission systems have
been updated such as online manuscript rating system by reviewers,
electronic submission system of copyright transfer and
disclosure of conflict of interest, and CrossCheck system powered
by iThenticate to increase the level of publication ethics.
I am honored to have been given the opportunity to serve as
the ALM’s new Editor-in-chief. First of all, I would like to express
my sincere appreciation to my predecessors (Prof. Myoung Hee
PARK, Prof. Eui-Chong KIM, Prof. Kyung Soon SONG, Prof.
Kyungwon LEE, Prof. Chan-Jeoung PARK, and Prof. Jeong-Ho
KIM) for their enthusiastic efforts to improve the quality of the
journal (timely decisions, timely publication, and attractive design
and layout).
I am very pleased that professors Jong Hee SHIN, Kyung A
LEE, and Young-Ae LIM have agreed to continue to serve as associate
editors and that two distinguished clinical pathologists,
Prof. Sail CHUN (clinical chemistry and laboratory informatics)
and Prof. Hyun Kyung KIM (diagnostic hematology), have newly
joined the associate editorial board. I'm also delighted to announce
that a new assistant editor (Prof. Mina HUR) and a manuscript
editor (Dr. Hye-Seong PARK) have joined the editorial
team. All editorial members will make every effort to screen submitted
articles in timely manner so that we can ensure early and
prudent decisions regarding their publication. Finally, I would like
to thank Prof. Myoung Hee PARK for her continued effort and
enthusiasm for scientific editing of all accepted articles.
As the editor-in-chief, I would like to improve scientific and
educational values, as well as the journal’s impact factors (JIFs).
Even though there were several shortcomings and criticisms regarding
the use of impact factors, JIFs are widely publicized and
may influence authors’ decision where to submit their manuscripts.
Therefore, they are frequently used as proxies for the
relative importance of a journal within its field [2]. Many editorsin-
chief have thought about improving their JIFs [3-6]. Accordingly,
I would like to adapt and build various editorial strategies
to improve our JIF while adhering to the accepted ethical standards.
These strategies will include: (1) improvement of publication
time by continuous monitoring and announcement; (2) inclusion
of systemic review articles that have a higher likelihood
of earning citations; (3) weighing of articles in favor of earlier issues,
a step that will have some positive effect on the impact
factor; (4) tailoring of titles and abstracts of articles to render
them high visible on Internet search engines while preserving
their intended meanings; and (5) shortening of the time from
submission to publication by electronically publishing accepted
manuscripts before final editing, when appropriate.
As you can see, we have a new journal name, new features
and design, and new editorial members. In popular discourse,
the term “quantum leap” refers to a large increase. We will try
to make a scientific, educational, and impact-wise quantum
leap in our journal. I encourage all the readers and authors to
offer suggestions to achieve this goal. |
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2012 Mar; 32(02) 103-104 |
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| DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.3343/alm.2012.32.2.103 |
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