This article aims to provide the history of the editing practices and the development of the Journal of the Korean Chemical Society (JKCS) during the first quarter century since its first publication in 1949, following the establishment of the Korean Chemical Society in 1946. This article was based on previous literatures on the history of the Korean Chemical Society published in 1971 and 1999. During the 1940s and 1950s, societal chaos, an economic crisis, and the lack of human resources made it difficult to publish JKCS. Although academic journals were highly valued, it took a long time to develop a systematic approach to compiling, editing, and publishing them. In the 1960s, Korean society entered a stable period and the number of chemists increased; this made it possible, in 1971, to speed up the process of systematizing and advancing academic journal editing in time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Korean Chemical Society. When JKCS was first being developed, sacrifices made by a few pioneers were the main driving force of the journal. The history of editing JKCS can be seen as a microcosm of the entire history of Korean academic journal editing.
