Looking Ahead to 2022 for the Korean Journal of Radiology.

In this editorial, I will briefly review some of the activities of the Korean Journal of Radiology (KJR) in 2021 and explain the changes planned in 2022.

In 2021, the world continued to suffer from the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). However, the massive impact of COVID-19 on scientific publications witnessed by us in 2020 [12] seems to have largely disappeared by 2021 in the field of radiology. KJR received a much smaller number of manuscripts on COVID-19 in 2021 than in 2020. This abrupt change is different from that experienced by general medical journals. For example, the majority of the articles published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2021 were still related to COVID-19. The rapid shrinkage of research studies on COVID-19 in radiology was because although radiology is a discipline mainly focused on diagnosis, the approach in dealing with the pandemic has shifted from diagnosis to vaccination and treatment/patient management in 2021. The KJR published eight articles related to COVID-19 in 2021 [3456789]. This number was much lower than that in 2020 and only two of them concerned the diagnosis of lung disease (commentaries on articles published in 2020) [89]. Other articles involved vaccination-associated lymphadenopathy [34], a meta-analysis of related neuroimaging findings [5], and modeling for patient management [67]. These topics reflect the phase shift in dealing with the pandemic. Notably, with the population-based large-scale vaccination campaign, COVID-19 vaccine-related lymphadenopathy that mimics malignant lymphadenopathy has become an issue that radiologists should be aware of [34].

As the manuscript submission and publication returned to the usual flow, artificial intelligence (AI) was a dominant topic addressed by the KJR in 2021. External validation/testing is critical for research studies involving AI [1011]. KJR pays close attention to external validation/testing while reviewing manuscripts, as demonstrated by some recent articles [7121314]. One particular issue that is garnering attention with respect to the introduction of AI in radiology is “opportunistic” automated body composition analyses using imaging performed for other targeted purposes such as quantitative measurements of bone mineral density, visceral and subcutaneous fat, skeletal muscle, liver fat, coronary vascular calcification, and organ size [121516171819]. The labor-intensive nature of manual (or even semi-automated) body composition measurements has largely prevented their translation from the research realm to routine clinical practice or large-scale population healthcare [15]. However, the emergence of automated AI-based approaches has paved the way for both efficient prospective clinical reporting and large-scale studies [15]. The association between skeletal muscle mass and patient outcomes is currently an area of active research [202122]. The KJR is interested in receiving and publishing research studies that broadly address how the use of various body composition measurements, which were previously neglected in image interpretation, may change the radiology practice in the future.

There will be a few notable changes in the KJR in 2022. Several new article categories have been added, which include Focus, various brief Editorial pieces, and Recommendation and Guideline. Focus includes articles that provide a timely summary and discussion on a focused issue. It is expected to be more concise (≤ 2000 words) and may contain slightly more opinion-based information than typical scholarly review articles. The KJR has been publishing Editorial articles in a limited scope to explain the policies and views of the journal and editors. We have now expanded it to include various brief pieces including the perspectives and opinions of an individual, a group, or an organization (not necessarily those of the journal); research highlights; commentaries on articles published in the journal; interviews; and summaries of symposia or conferences. The KJR’s new attention to these brief articles is in consideration of a recent trend in scientific publications. The primary purpose of these short articles is to help readers identify and digest critical information in a timely manner, filtering/summarizing the vast amount of new information continuously created. The brief pieces are expected to be particularly useful in addressing rapidly evolving topics. Furthermore, these brief pieces may be more compatible with the era of mobile networks. KJR has already published several such brief articles in 2021 [15232425] including a few that were published in a slightly different interim format and category [2324]. These articles address a singular topic rather than covering a broad topic. The examples include the proposal of a new goal in ablation therapy for benign thyroid nodules [23], the importance of specifying magnetic resonance imaging parameters for a high-resolution T2-weighted scan of rectal cancer [24], six mistakes to avoid for better reporting of survival analysis in imaging research [25], and a perspective on how automated computed tomography-based body composition analysis enabled by the current AI/machine-learning technology might influence routine radiology practice [15]. The KJR will publish more of these brief pieces in 2022. The Recommendation and Guideline category aims to publish documents that provide evidence-based recommendations/guidance for clinical practice, which are created or endorsed by academic organizations or groups [26]. KJR previously published these documents as Review. We admit that it was not an entirely adequate categorization. The articles published under the category of Recommendation and Guideline are expected to have methodological rigor and transparency including a thorough systematic literature review and specification of the consensus process [26]. Documents that represent academic organizations or groups, but do not need or do not sufficiently follow the methodology for developing practice guidelines can be published more appropriately under the Editorial or Focus categories [2728].

Another change in 2022 will be the reduction in the time allotted to peer reviewers for reviewing the manuscript. The peer review used to be performed within 20 days after a reviewer’s acceptance of our invitation. This period will be shortened to 14 days. The editors understand that this change might cause some difficulties for some of the reviewers. Nevertheless, many other radiology journals have shortened their review duration to 14 days or even shorter. With the increasing speed and amount of scientific information delivery enabled by continuously improving information technology and networking, the need for rapid peer review is growing. Therefore, the editors of the KJR believe that reducing the review duration is the right move to serve the submitting authors with greater efficiency in this changing environment. The editors appreciate the efforts and contributions of the reviewers.

Finally, I am pleased to introduce a new section editor for the genitourinary section, as well as the newly appointed editorial board members for 2022–2026.

Dr. Sung Il Hwang, a new section editor for the genitourinary section, graduated from Seoul National University School of Medicine and earned his MD degree in 1996. He completed residency training in diagnostic radiology at the Seoul National University Hospital (1997–2000) and received a PhD at the same university. He had one each year of fellowship training in the genitourinary section at Seoul National University Hospital and Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. After that, he has worked as a professor of radiology at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital since 2007. Dr. Hwang has written more than 80 scientific papers in international journals and served as an active reviewer for several journals including KJR, Ultrasonography, Journal of Urology, etc. His primary research areas include imaging and intervention of the prostate, AI, and gynecologic imaging.

The newly appointed editorial board members can be found in the journal’s masthead (https://www.kjronline.org/index.php?body=EditorialBoard).