Korean journals in the Science Citation Index: What do they reveal about the intellectual structure of S&T in Korea?

TL;DR

This study analyzes Korean SCI journals to understand their role in Korea's scientific community, revealing they serve mainly as publication outlets rather than sources of research influence, with implications for policy to boost research impact.

Contribution

It provides a social network analysis of Korean SCI journals, highlighting their function and suggesting policy directions to enhance Korea's scientific influence.

Findings

Korean SCI journals act mainly as publication outlets.

There are limited citation relations among Korean journals.

Korean journals facilitate access to international scientific communities.

Abstract

During the last decade, we have witnessed a sustained growth of South Korea's research output in terms of the world share of publications in the Science Citation Index database. However, Korea's citation performance is not yet as competitive as publication performance. In this study, the authors examine the intellectual structure of Korean S&T field based on social network analysis of journal-journal citation data using the ten Korean SCI journals as seed journals. The results reveal that Korean SCI journals function more like publication places, neither research channels nor information sources among national scientists. Thus, these journals may provide Korean scholars with access to international scientific communities by facilitating the respective entry barriers. However, there are no citation relations based on their Korean background. Furthermore, we intend to draw some policy implications which may be helpful to increase Korea's research potential.