As an official journal of the Korea Academy of Mental Health Social Work, Mental Health & Social Work is one and only academic journal of this field in Korea. First established in 1994, Mental Health & Social Work is now 20 years old after being selected as a candidate journal of accrediation by the Korean Research Foundation in 2000 and promoted as an accredited journal in 2004. Since its establishment, many systematic changes in the field of mental health have been made: Korean Mental Health Law was legislated in 1995, community mental health has been enhanced, metropolitan and local mental health centers were established, certification system of professional mental health social worker was built. Meanwhile, there are also changes such as transition from medical-centered approach to integrated approach, development of strengths-perspective and evidence-based practice, publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, 5th Edition. In terms of research, large-sized panel data such as Korea Welfare Panel Study and Seoul Welfare Panel Study have been constructed and utilized for research, advanced statistical methods have been more applied, research collaboration and interdisciplinary research have increased, establishment of Institutional Review Board was regulated to increase research ethics.
Editorial committee analyzed a total of 411 research articles published in Mental Health & Social Work and reviewed the trend of research. From the formality aspects, the number of published articles in journals has increased; while collaborative research between academia and clinical field has continuously increased, the number of research papers solely by clinical practitioners has significantly decreased. In terms of authors’ majors, the number of papers by other majors than social work and collaboration between social work majors and other majors have somewhat increased. While sole author publication has obviously decreased, collaborative publication has markedly increased. In terms of research method, while survey study increased, non-intervention study including review study has obviously decreased. For survey research, the sample size has sharply increase in mid-2000, and the number of studies by funding sources sharply increase around 2010, which shows the general trend of academia in Korea.
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