The Journal of Gynecologic Oncology and the Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology: the history, the present and the future

Synapse. The journal aims to become a representative journal in gynecologic oncology in the region of Asia and Oceania. One of the leading SCI(E) journals in gynecologic oncology is 'Gynecologic Oncology' (GO), which was launched in 1972 and has been published by the Society of Gynecologic Oncol­ ogy (SGO). Another is 'International Journal of Gynecological Cancer' (IJGC), launched in 1991 as an official publication of International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS) initially and now also of European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO). These 3 organizations and 2 journals in gynecologic oncology are mainly based in North America, Europe, and Australia. As of the year of 2008, there was actually no interna­ tional journal based on Asia, but only domestic journals pub­ lished in the individual countries of Asia. The Japan Society of Gynecologic Oncology (JSGO) has a longer history than KSGO but has not yet launched an English journal, and the situation is the same in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and Austra­ lia. The ASGO was established 3 years ago, but it may be consi­ dered that its seed was sowed during the 9th IGCS Meeting held in 2002 in Seoul. During that biennial meeting, a satellite meeting was held between Japan Gynecologic Oncology Group (JGOG) and the corresponding Korean organization according to the request of Japan. JGOG was a research organization estab­ lished to carry out clinical trials related to gynecologic cancers, and at that time no corresponding Korean organization had been established. So taking that opportunity, Korean Gyneco­ logic Oncology Group (KGOG) was organized, and since then Korea­Japan Gynecologic Cancer Joint Meeting (GCJM) has been held every year as a shuttle meeting, alternately in Korea and Japan. As the meeting continued to be held year by year, a consensus had been developed that the meeting needed to be upgraded to the Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology. Eventually, in November 2008, the meeting for inaugurating ASGO was held during the 7th Korea­Japan GCJM. Beginning with the September 2006 issue, JGO had already been distributed to more than 300 organizations all over the world; and after being changed to an English journal, it has been distributed to a wider range of recipients, including in­ fluential gynecologic oncologists of every nation. Since the journal was indexed by SCIE in May 2009, the fact of having been indexed is clearly stated on the journal cover, and it has been distributed to which permits …