Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics in Korea

On a very hot summer day in 2012, Restorative Dentistry & Endodontics (RDE, www.rde.ac) changes its official language from Korean to English in order to join and to contribute to the international society of specific dental professions. On the verge of this breakthrough, it is an imperative step to remember the pioneer members and to appreciate their hard work and dedication. The Korean Academy of Operative Dentistry was founded in 1959 and Professor Yoo-Kyung Lee served to establish the basis of the association as the first president. In 1975, the first issue of the RDE was published as the Journal of Korean Academy of Operative Dentistry by Professor Young-Hae Kim as the publisher and Professor Chung-Moon Um as the editor. The journal changed its name to the Journal of Korean Academy of Conservative Dentistry in 1988. With the change of official language, the name of the journal was changed again to Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics in 2012.

In Korea, two groups of dentists interested in either Pediatric Dentistry or Periodotology separated from the department of Operative Dentistry in the early 1950s. Ever since then, the department of Operative Dentistry, which was newly named to the department of Conservative Dentistry in 1988, have practiced restoration of dental hard tissue defects resulting from caries, fractures, etc., and surgical and non-surgical endodontic treatment against pulpal and periapical pathoses. In the department of Conservative Dentistry, most practitioners practice both restorative and endodontic treatments. However, those practitioners and professors who are highly motivated in Endodontics hope to clearly identify their specialty to collaborate with international societies. Therefore, in 2011, the Korean Academy of Conservative Dentistry agreed with the Editorial Board to re-name the official journal as RDE, in order to reveal the sub-specialties and the scopes of its members clearly.

With the adoption of English as the official language, the distribution of electric version of the articles as an open access journal via internet resources, and the resultant expansion of the readership, we expect to share our research results with international societies and to contribute to the dental health of mankind. Through the Google Scholar, the RDE articles can be searched and downloaded by researchers all over the world. When the related articles have been published in RDE, if you type in two keywords at the search window of the Google Scholar (English version, http://scholar.google.com), you can find the RDE articles, move to the KoreaMed Synapse (http://synapse.koreamed.org), and download the full text pdf files from the journal's homepage.

Therefore, that is the reason why all the articles in the RDE should be written in English. We should also improve the quality of its contents and the articles, and we should be urged to prepare all the necessary documentations in English based on international standards. We are also deeply appreciative of the international authors and researchers who consider the RDE in publishing their research results and contribute to the review processes of the RDE.

Byeong-Hoon Cho,

Editor-in-Chief

Vol. 37, No. 3, 2012