Hong Kong Medical Journal – the Premier General Medical Journal in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Medical Journal (HKMJ) is the premier general medical journal in Hong Kong. Editor-in-Chief Professor Martin CS Wong and the Editorial Board of HKMJ are pleased to collaborate with the Editor-in-Chief Dr Sung-Tae Hong and the editors of Journal of Korean Medical Science (JKMS) to promote the respective journals and share ideas and expertise in journal publishing.

In 2018, the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (HKAM) celebrated its 25th year of providing outstanding education to Hong Kong's medical and dental professionals. HKAM was privileged to welcome the then-President of the Korean Academy of Medicine Sciences, Professor Sung-Goo Chang as an honoured guest at the 25th Anniversary Congress. Taking advantage of this opportunity, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two academies to promote academic collaboration and exchange of medical education, laying the foundation for collaboration between the two journals.

HKMJ is the official peer-reviewed joint publication of HKAM and the Hong Kong Medical Association. HKMJ is published once every 2 months by HKAM Press and is indexed in Medline, Science Citation Index Expanded, Scopus, and DOAJ, among others. The 2020 Journal Impact Factor for HKMJ is 2.227 (Clarivate, 2021) and the 2020 CiteScore is 1.6 (Scopus, 2021).

HKMJ publishes high-quality Original Articles, Review Articles, Medical Practice papers, Case Reports, Pictorial Medicine papers, Editorials, Commentaries, and Letters to the Editor covering a wide range of topics pertaining to the art and science of medicine. In 2020, HKMJ received 617 submissions, which was a substantial increase compared with previous years, owing mainly to the effect of COVID-19. HKMJ attracts many submissions from outside Hong Kong, and 56% of submissions in 2020 were international. The overall acceptance rate was 27% and, thanks to improvements in handling of submissions, the submission-to-acceptance time was reduced by around 20% to 8 weeks and the acceptance-to-print time was reduced to 4.6 months.

Submissions to HKMJ go through a speedy and well-organised peer review process through HKAMedTrack, an online submission and manuscript tracking system developed by HKAM. All papers are reviewed by two independent reviewers usually in two to three weeks’ time. Reviewers are committed to provide constructive scientific comments, methodological and statistical appraisals, appropriateness of the discussion and conclusions. To ensure publishing high quality articles, Epidemiological Advisors of HKMJ will provide methodological review of the research before the papers are published. HKMJ has a firm commitment to publish high-quality reports which could exert a significant impact on clinical practice or public health policy.1

Plans to further improve our handling of submissions, especially for those that are timely or otherwise high-priority, were accelerated by the COVID-19 situation. We created a special section on our website for published papers relating to COVID-19 (https://www.hkmj.org/COVID-19) and prioritised review of these papers to ensure that, if accepted, they were published promptly online ahead of print.

The COVID-19 outbreak also provided impetus for launching HKMJ into the world of social media.2 We established an Expert Advisory Panel on Social Media convened by Prof Jeremy Teoh, and considering our current and target audience of medical and dental professionals, it was decided that Facebook would have the most immediate impact, and provide a suitable launchpad for other channels in future. The Editors of the Expert Advisory Panel help to identify articles that are suitable for promotion on social media and make suggestions for the visual abstracts, which are than drafted by Editorial staff and posted on social media platforms. The HKMJ Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/HongKongMedJ/) was launched in June 2020 and its audience has grown steadily to over 200 followers, with some popular posts reaching thousands of readers.

HKMJ is committed to publishing and promoting high-quality research. To highlight outstanding original research published in HKMJ each year, the Journal awards the Best Original Paper Award (https://www.hkmj.org/bopa) to the paper short-listed by the Editorial Board and finally selected by the International Advisory Board. All authors are eligible for the award, with winners from Hong Kong in 2020,3 and authors from mainland China receiving the prize in 2019.4

Despite its small locale, HKMJ is a very international journal. In addition to more than half of submissions to HKMJ coming from outside Hong Kong, the majority of HKMJ readers are also from outside the territory, with around 60% of website traffic originating overseas (about 1% from Korea). Because HKMJ understands that many authors and readers are from non-native English speaking backgrounds, we offer complimentary technical and copy editing for all accepted papers. This ensures not only that spelling and grammatical errors are rectified, but also that published papers are clear, concise, and easy to read.

HKMJ is always eager to engage in initiatives to promote published articles overseas, and to encourage more international submissions. In line with this, the December issue of HKMJ will include a special section on Healthcare in Mainland China.5 The purpose of this special section is to promote high-quality research from mainland China among medical and dental professionals in Hong Kong and encourage communication. The first special section will focus on primary care and population health in rural mainland China.

We are grateful for the opportunity to share our journal with readers of JKMS, and we are delighted to reciprocate by publicising JKMS among readers of HKMJ.6 We hope that you will gain value from reading HKMJ and encourage you to keep up to date by following us on Facebook.