Taking a Great Leap Forward on a Blue Horse

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The year of the blue horse has begun. In the Chinese zodiac, 2014 is the year of the blue horse. Horse symbolizes success and leaps, and blue symbolizes hope and luck. The color blue is especially meaningful to our journal because it is also the representative color of the Korean Journal of Urology (KJU). Together, we expect that KJU will make successful contributions and bring a hopeful future to the field of urology this year by taking a great, dynamic leap forward on a blue horse. Beginning with the January issue of 2014, the KJU will be an official journal of three societies: the Korean Urological Association, the Korean Endourological Society, and the Korean Society of Pediatric Urology. The Korean Endourological Society has published the Korean Journal of Endourology since 2001 and the Korean Society of Pediatric Urology has published the Korean Journal of Pediatric Urology since 2009. The main reason for merging the journals was the overlap in scope and members among the three societies. Instead of individual publications, the Korean Endourological Society and Korean Society of Pediatric Urology will be authorized to take over editing in the Endourology and Pediatric Urology sections, respectively, within the larger body of KJU. In the long term, the merging of the three individual journals is expected to provide more in-depth knowledge in the sections of Endourology and Pediatric Urology and to improve the overall quality of the journal. The goal of KJU this year is to be a cutting-edge international journal with open access, audio-video contents, and high quality research in the field of urology. First, to accomplish this, we will broaden the article contributors and members of the editorial board to include the Asia-Pacific region and maintain the open access policy to provide widespread dissemination of knowledge. Second, the KJU will promote upload and access of the visual clips to further aid users in delivering both academic knowledge and skills. Video clips related to minimally invasive surgery and advanced surgical technique can be submitted for placement on the journal website. There is also a ‘Video Interview with the Author’ corner on the journal’s homepage where authors give audiovisual presentations of their data. Last, one of the most important aspects of the journal is improving the quality of the journal to solidify its global status as an international journal. For this, the KJU will provide readers with an up-to-date guide to international developments in urology. The impact factor from the Web of Science and impact index from SCImago Journal of the KJU began to increase dramatically beginning in 2011. Huh [1] commented that the KJU has already been established as an international journal, because more than 85% of the citations come from international researchers. In addition, the research and publication ethics should be regarded as an integral part of a qualified journal [2]. The editorial team of KJU screens published and submitted content for originality by using Crosscheck to prevent plagiarism and also checks submitted articles to see whether they meet the criteria of publication ethics. In order to achieve our New Year’s pledge of making the KJU an internationally renowned journal, the editorial team of the KJU will work hard by taking in the promising energy of the blue horse. We look forward to making great leaps toward creative academic achievements this year.