Bibliometric study of coauthor and keywords network analysis of articles in the North Korean Journal of Chosun Medicine and Preventive Medicine for 1997~2006

As the only divided country on earth the South and the North Korea has developed dissimilar political systems during more than half a century. Especially, each healthcare systems are quiet different but, because of the restriction in approaching the internal data of the North Korea, only few research has been performed. This research examined, on the basis of medical informatics and bibliometrics, the two preventive journals of North Korean medical research by using coauthor and keyword network analysis.

We used "Chosun Medicine" and "Preventive Medicine"(from the first volume of 1997 to the fourth volume of 2006) as data. We extracted 1,734 coauthors from 1,104 papers of "Chosun Medicine" and 1,567 coauthors from 1,172 papers of "Preventive Medicine". We extracted key words by R v.2.6 and we realized shrinking network and illustrated core coauthor network by Pajek v.1.2.2.

In case of coauthor analysis, huge single components were extracted and so a tendency of structuralization was detected. 32 researchers(1.8%) of "Chosun Medicine" and 68 researchers(4.3%) of "Preventive Medicine" were identified as important coauthors above 20 IF(Impact Factor). "Preventive Medicine" relatively showed tendency of specialization while "Chosun Medicine" showed tendency of generalization. In case of keyword analysis, we could extract 17 and 33 keywords from each journal. "Chosun Medicine" mainly concerned pathological research while "Preventive Medicine" mainly concerned virus and medicine researches which are based on infection and immune.

In contrast to the South Korea, North Korea developed Juche medicine and gratuitous medical service. According to this research the idea was embodied by the discovery of bacteria, study on immune system and emphasis on pathology, on the basis of experimental epidemiology. However, the fact that health equity and researches or proposals on the health policies concerning specific groups in danger are absent suggests us the need of renovation for the whole national healthcare.