Pediatric urology in the KJU.

Abstract

Korea has four distinct seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. April is sunny springtime, with new buds on the trees and fantastic cherry blossoms in the streets all over the country. Childhood and adolescence are like the spring season in a human's lifetime. They are an energetic and dynamic period during which growth and regeneration are occurring every day. The Korean Society of Pediatric Urology (KSPU) was established on April 25, 1992. It originated from the Korean Pediatric Urology study group, which was founded in 1987. KSPU has participated in the Asia Pacific Association of Pediatric Urologists (APAPU) since 1999, and the annual meetings of the APAPU were twice held in Korea, in Seoul in 2002 and in Busan in 2012. KSPU has made an effort to have a broad academic exchange with the world. KSPU had published its own journal, the Korean Journal of Pediatric Urology (KJSPU), since April 2009. KJSPU was published twice a year for 5 years, and it was united with the Korean Journal of Urology (KJU) in January 2014. The main reasons for the merger of the two journals were the overlap in scope and members among the societies and the expectation to provide more in-depth knowledge in the section of Pediatric Urology and to improve the overall quality of the KJU [1]. After the merger, about 50% of the manuscripts for pediatric urology submitted to the KJU came from outside Korea, including Turkey, Iran, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Tunisia in Africa. The acceptance rate of the articles for pediatric urology was 53.3% in 2014. This was slightly higher than the overall acceptance rate of KJU, which was 46.1% in 2014 [2]. Ten pediatric-related articles including one review article, which was about robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery, were published in 2014. Several interesting papers were published in 2014, including a research study on a urinary biomarker in neonatal hydronephrosis [3] and a multicenter observational study about pediatric neurogenic bladder [4]. In Korea, more than 35 centers and hospitals have the da Vinci robot system (Intuitive Surgical Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA). About 7,000 surgeries are performed annually, and the number of cases is increasing yearly. However, few robot-assisted surgeries have been performed in the field of pediatric urology in Korea. Except for the review article, one case report about infant robotic surgery was published in the KJU [5]. Accordingly, articles related to robot-assisted pediatric surgery are welcome in the KJU. KJU has a special advantage in the genomics/stem cell field in urology and the ease of access to video clips compared with various other urologic journals. Also, KJU has a well-designed peer review system, and the key focus in 2015 will be on rapid critical reviews, fast publication, and easy-to-access online audiovisual content [6]. Therefore, I sincerely ask pediatric urologists worldwide to submit manuscripts to the KJU, which will be an excellent journal in the field of urology.