Another leap for EMM into a new era

Abstract

In 1948, twenty scientists gathered at the Seoul National University to have the first annual meeting of the Korean Biochemical Society. Korea had been freed from the colonial rule of Japan three years before, and the Korean War broke out two years later, lasting for another three years. It was a time of deprivation and destruction. Many scientists were lost during the war, research facilities destroyed and research funds were unavailable. During that period, however, scientific endeavor continued, and the Society started publication of the Korean Journal of Biochemistry in 1964, which became the first Korean scientific journal to publish only papers written in English. It was the belief of the editors of the Journal that only papers that were exposed to a worldwide readership could make any contribution to the progress in the field. This belief, so natural in current times, was not so readily accepted by the Korean potential authors of that time, because of both the language barrier and the lower quality of research.