Korea churning out more journals

Korea maintained its rank of 13th in the world in the number of academic journals on science and technology that it publishes annually, the Science Ministry said yesterday. But Korea increased the number of science journals by 4 percent, which was second only to China, which had a growth rate of 14.4 percent. The rankings are based on the 2004 Science Citation Index. Seoul National University topped the list with the most journals; the Korea Institute of Science and Technology was No. 1 among state-run agencies, and Samsung Electronics was first among companies. “More journals are being published by Korea because of increased investment in research and development,” said Han Seung-hee, a Science Ministry official. The government’s research budget has risen from 3.6 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in 2000, to 5.7 trillion won last year. by Park Bang-ju