Your first-choice journal in urology

Happy New Year 2022!

I hope that all our readers, reviewers, and potential authors continue to stay safe and healthy during the ongoing global pandemic.

Last year, Investigative and Clinical Urology (Investig Clin Urol or ICUrology) achieved a new record: breaking the impact factor 2.0 barrier for the first time since the journal’s first impact factor in 2018. The journal achieved a 2020 citation index of 2.186 in the Journal Citation Reports of Clarivate Analytics. The journal’s Scopus CiteScore for 2020 was 3.0, ranked 42nd out of 94 journals. A celebration was held during the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Korean Urological Association in COEX, Seoul, Korea, on November 4, 2021 (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
Photo taken at the official ceremony held during the annual meeting of the Korean Urological Association to celebrate Investigative and Clinical Urology breaking through the citation index barrier of 2.0.

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The “most cited article” and “best reviewer” awards for 2021 were also presented during the celebration. The Reviewer of the Year Award 2021 was given to the reviewer who contributed the most in reviewing articles submitted to ICUrology in a year. The winner of this year was Dr. Jong Jin Oh from Seoul National University, Korea. The Most Cited Article Award 2021 was given to the ICUrology article cited most in SCIE journals published in the previous year. The article titled “Advances in urinary biomarker discovery in urological research” authored by Dr. Wun-Jae Kim from Chungbuk National University, Korea, was awarded in the review article category [1]. The article titled, “Do patients benefit from total intracorporeal robotic radical cystectomy?: A comparative analysis with extracorporeal robotic radical cystectomy from a Korean multicenter study” authored by Dr. Seok Ho Kang from Korea University, Korea, was awarded in the original article category [2]. I would like to thank all the editors, reviewers, and authors for their continuous support of ICUrology.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the world to move online and speed up digital transformation. ICUrology has been publishing YouTube video clips of minimally invasive surgery and advanced surgical technique as Urology in Motion (https://www.icurology.org/index.php?body=motions) on the journal website. In addition, we plan to publish articles in the field of Digital Health in Urology and Telemedicine in Urology, which will contain important, innovative research on topics related to digital technology in urology. Currently, the main social media of ICUrology is Twitter. We will continue to expand the journal’s social network services. We hope to communicate actively with global readers using social media.

ICUrology is pursuing the goal of becoming a premier journal in the urology field. To achieve this goal, the journal focuses on rapid review and early publication of high-quality articles. The turnaround time, that is, the mean review period from submission to decision, was 15.9 days in 2021, and the acceptance rate was 14.3%. The journal maintains a platinum open access policy to receive high-quality articles from all around the world. ICUrology strives to communicate highly relevant and timely knowledge in the field to a broad audience worldwide.

The editorial board will do its best to continue to publish high-quality articles for international scholars and readers. The paramount goal of the journal is to become your first-choice journal in urology.

Warm wishes,