• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.117-133
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• 2011

There have been little comprehensive research for studying impact of foreign journals on Korean scientists. The main reason for this is because there was no extensive citation index database of domestic journals for analysis. Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) built the Korea Science Citation Database (KSCD), and have provided Korea Science Citation Index (KSCI) and Korea Journal Citation Reports (KJCR) services. In this article, citing behavior of Korean scientists on foreign journals was examined by using KSCD that covers Korean core journals. This research covers (1) analysis of foreign document types cited, (2) analysis of citation counts of foreign journals by subject and the ratio of citing different disciplines, (3) analysis of language and country of foreign documents cited, (4) analysis of publishers of journals and whether or not journals are listed on global citation index services and (5) analysis for current situation of subscribing to foreign electronic journals in Korea. The results of this research would be useful for establishing strategies for licensing foreign electronic journals and for information services. From this research, immediacy citation rate (average 1.46%), peak-time (average 3.9 years) and half-life (average 8 years) of cited foreign journals were identified. It was also found that Korean scientistis tend to cite journals covered in SCI(E) or SCOPUS, and 90% of cited foreign journals have been licensed by institutions in Korea.