Korea Society of Radiology (KSR) said it is showing remarkable prowess in the international stage after receiving global recognition for its official journal and academic conference.

According to the association, the Korean Journal of Radiology (KJR), the official journal of KSR, has received a higher impact factor score than the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR). KSR’s conference has also become the first local academic conference to see foreign attendees exceeding the number of local attendees, it added.

"KJR recorded an IF of 3.730 as of this year," KSR President Oh Joo-hyeong said. "The score is the highest among all journals in the field of medicine."

Considering that AJR's impact factor, which has the longest history in the field of radiology, is 3.161, this is a grand feat, he added.

The association's high status was confirmed during last month's Korean Congress of Radiology (KCR) 2019, Oh noted.

Although it was a local conference, more than 90 percent of the presentations, including speeches and posters, were in English, according to the society.

Also, unlike other local medical societies that invite guest speakers to convert the conference into an international gathering, the KCR 2019 saw more than 400 voluntary overseas participants, the organization said. About 700 of the 1,300 papers adopted were those from foreign researchers, showing the status of KSR as an official international journal, it added.

"This growth is remarkable compared to 10 years ago," the association said. "There were only 65 overseas abstracts in 2009, but in 2019 we had 654 overseas abstracts, while the number of voluntary participants who paid the registration fee also quadrupled from 96 in 2009 to 393 in 2019."

Such achievements have helped us gradually increase the impact factor score for KJR, with the journal finally surpassing even that of AJR this year, the association pointed out.