  During the last decade, we have witnessed a sustained growth of South Korea's
research output in terms of the world share of publications in the Science
Citation Index database. However, Korea's citation performance is not yet as
competitive as publication performance. In this study, the authors examine the
intellectual structure of Korean S&T field based on social network analysis of
journal-journal citation data using the ten Korean SCI journals as seed
journals. The results reveal that Korean SCI journals function more like
publication places, neither research channels nor information sources among
national scientists. Thus, these journals may provide Korean scholars with
access to international scientific communities by facilitating the respective
entry barriers. However, there are no citation relations based on their Korean
background. Furthermore, we intend to draw some policy implications which may
be helpful to increase Korea's research potential.
