Scientometrics Open Access
Copyright ©2009 The WJG Press and Baishideng. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 21, 2009; 15(35): 4471-4475
Published online Sep 21, 2009. doi: 10.3748/wjg.15.4471
Papers featured in the World Journal of Gastroenterology from 2006 to 2007
Hua Yang, Jing-Hai Zhang, Fang Zhang, Library of Shengjing Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110004, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Yang H designed and performed the research; Zhang JH and Zhang F did statistical analysis.
Supported by The Education Department of Liaoning Province, No. 05W238
Correspondence to: Hua Yang, Professional Librarian, Library of Shengjing Hospital, China Medical University, No. 36, Sanhao St., Heping District, Shenyang 110004, Liaoning Province, China. yangh@sj-hospital.org
Telephone: +86-24-96615-13646 Fax: +86-24-23892620
Received: June 23, 2009
Revised: August 26, 2009
Accepted: September 3, 2009
Published online: September 21, 2009

Abstract

AIM: To analyze papers published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG) from 2006 to 2007. We investigated the highly cited papers for geographic distribution of the cited authors, as well as the distribution of the citing journals and year of citation.

METHODS: Papers published in WJG from 2006 to 2007 and their citations were retrieved from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE). The papers and their citations were analyzed according to bibliometric methods, including the number of citations for a given paper, the distribution of the highly cited papers, the geographic distribution of the cited authors, and the years of citation.

RESULTS: Two thousand five hundred and six papers published in WJG from 2006 to 2007 were collected through SCIE, and 2335 of these were categorized as articles, reviews or proceedings. In 2006 and 2007, the average citation rate was 85.08% and 70.48%, respectively, and the average number of citations per paper was 4.33 and 2.51. Among the 2506 papers, 1963 were cited 8788 times by other articles. The mean number of citations per paper was 3.51. The papers with over three citations accounted for 54.72% of all those that were cited, and the total number of citations accounted for 85.38% of the total of 8788 citations. Thirteen papers were cited over 30 times and the highest number of citations for any one paper was 98. The cited authors came from 70 different countries or regions, with China, Japan and the United States being the most frequent. The highest average citation rate and number of citations per paper were for authors from Canada (96.30%, 6.89), Hungary (92.31%, 5.62), Australia (88.46%, 5.46), Germany (87.04%, 5.33), and Spain (87.50%, 5.11). The impact factor was 2.081 and the self-citation rate was 9.41% in 2008. The papers published in WJG in 2006-2007 were cited by 1597 journals.

CONCLUSION: The papers in WJG have a high number of citations, and have been cited in numerous journals by authors from various countries. The results imply that WJG has an influential academic profile in gastroenterology around the world.

Key Words: Citation analysis; Bibliometrics; World Journal of Gastroenterology



INTRODUCTION
Table 1 Citation frequency of papers published in WJG 2006-2007.
Cited timesNo. of cited articles
No. of cited times
CountPercent (%)CountPercent (%)
149325.114935.61
239620.177929.01
327013.758109.22
41758.917007.97
51608.158009.10
61075.456427.31
7773.925396.13
8562.854485.10
9412.093694.20
10422.144204.78
11-201115.65172019.57
21-30231.175466.21
31-4090.463163.60
41-10030.151932.20
Total1963100.008788100.00
Table 2 List of papers published in WJG 2006-2007 with over 30 citations.
RankFirst authorTitleSourcesCited times
1Crew KDEpidemiology of gastric cancer12(3): 354-362, 200698
2Sebastiani GNon invasive fibrosis biomarkers reduce but not substitute the need for liver biopsy12(23): 3682-3694, 200653
3Kim KPDiagnostic criteria for autoimmune chronic pancreatitis revisited12(16): 2487-2496, 200642
4Tamura GAlterations of tumor suppressor and tumor-related genes in the development and progression of gastric cancer12(2): 192-198, 200640
5Alter MJEpidemiology of hepatitis C virus infection13(17): 2436-2441, 200739
6Dietrich CFAssessment of metastatic liver disease in patients with primary extrahepatic tumors by contrast-enhanced sonography versus CT & MRI12(11): 1699-1705, 200636
7Smith MGCellular and molecular aspects of gastric cancer12(19): 2979-2990, 200636
8Lakatos PLRecent trends in the epidemiology of inflammatory bowel diseases: Up or down?12(38): 6102-6108, 200635
9Engwegen JYMNIdentification of serum proteins discriminating colorectal cancer patients and healthy controls using surface-enhanced laser desorption ionisation-time of flight mass spectrometry12(10): 1536-1544, 200634
10Glebe DViral and cellular determinants involved in hepadnaviral entry13(1): 22-38, 200734
11Hocke MContrast-enhanced endoscopic ultrasound in discrimination between focal pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer12(2): 246-250, 200631
12Schaefer SHepatitis B virus taxonomy and hepatitis B virus genotypes13(1): 14-21, 200731
13Danese SEtiopathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases12(30): 4807-4812, 200630
Table 3 Papers and their frequency of citation, according to category.
Category2006
2007
Total
Total citation rateTotal cited times
No. of papersPapers citedCited timesNo. of papersPapers citedCited timesCount of papersPapers citedCited times
Basic research178154682886321926621790181.583.39
Case reports21616747720810522642427270364.151.66
Clinical research9384454674917616013363083.133.94
Colorectal cancer3736152221856595420891.533.53
Editorial8582664585025514313291992.316.43
Esophageal cancer10953431114126485.714.57
Gastric cancer4139200231748645624887.503.88
H pylori1714341091527234985.191.81
Leading article1120112100.002.00
Letters to the editor18104126142244246354.551.43
Liver cancer (cirrhosis)3430171272159615123083.613.77
Rapid communications4753831593391268773866651236675.172.73
Reviews7572860373213611210499692.868.89
Topic highlights7062482132120731202182121390.106.00
Viral hepatitis3737134181462555119692.733.56
Other1007008000.000.00
Total1388118059991118783278925061963878878.333.51
Table 4 Geographic distribution of cited authors.
RankAreaPaperNo. of cited papersPercent (%)Cited timesAverage citations per paperRankAreaPaperNo. of cited papersPercent (%)Cited timesAverage citations per paper
1China63545171.0214992.3616Netherlands282485.711264.50
2Japan29923076.9210353.4617Canada272696.301866.89
3United States18815682.989104.8418Australia262388.461425.46
4Germany16214187.048635.3319Hungary262492.311465.62
5Italy15112985.436194.1020Brazil221777.27602.73
6Turkey1118072.072352.1221Mexico221777.27462.09
7South Korea916672.532132.3422Poland211780.95612.90
8Greece825668.291732.1123Sweden181688.89834.61
9India685479.412043.0024Denmark171588.24502.94
10Taiwan, China645078.132063.2225Serbia171376.47261.53
11Spain564987.502865.1126Israel131184.62624.77
12England523975.001693.2527Egypt12866.67191.58
13France524484.622574.9428Belgium11872.73464.18
14Iran443477.271002.2729Ireland111090.91413.73
15Thailand292482.76722.48Total1832235577.797935
Table 5 Year of citation for papers published in WJG 2006-2007.
Publicationyear2006
2007
2008
2009
Total
Other citationSelf citationTotalOther citationSelf citationTotalOther citationSelf citationTotalOther citationSelf citationTotalOther citationSelf citationTotal
2006130371671424167159128172623079104952110154205185938
200711029139158519517808834893125782722850
Total1303716715341961730440245748591932100203279987908788
Percent (%)77.8422.1610088.6711.3310090.599.4110094.995.0110091.018.99100
Table 6 Journals with a high number of citations from WJG 2006-2007.
No.JournalsCitationsProportion (%)
1World Journal of Gastroenterology7908.99
2American Journal of Gastroenterology1041.18
3Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics1021.16
4Gastrointestinal Endoscopy1011.15
5Digestive diseases and Sciences901.02
6Hepatology901.02
7Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology881.00
8Inflammatory Bowel Diseases820.93
9Current Opinion in Gastroenterology780.89
10Gastroenterology760.86
11Gut750.85
12Liver International670.76
13Journal of Hepatology640.73
14International Journal of Cancer550.63
15Zeitschrift fur Gastroenterologie540.61
16European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology530.60
17Pancreas530.60
18Revista Espanola de Enfermedades Digestivas520.59
19Journal of Gastroenterology510.58
Total212524.18

In the natural sciences, especially in basic and life sciences, journals have never attracted more attention. The content and academic quality of journals is emphasized, and the academic profile of a journal can be evaluated through citation analysis of a given journal’s papers, as well as the journal impact factor. The pertinent indexes for evaluating a scientific journal involve the publisher of the journal, its academic background, reputation of the authors, the number of times that papers are cited, and the journal impact factor[1]. Some of these indexes may evaluate subjectively the journal impact in a qualitative manner, and some may measure quantitatively the general profile or average level of the journal papers[2]. The reputation of scientific journals, types of papers in a given journal, the number of papers in a given journal, the citation rate, and the number of times each paper is cited are all essential indicators of the quality of scientific journals.

The current study analyzed several features of papers published in World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), including the citation rate of the published papers, the average number of times a given paper was cited, the geographic distribution of the cited authors, the year of citation, and the distribution of the citing journals so that we can understand the character of WJG. The results will be of interest to the editors of WJG and its readers.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) is a sophisticated database established by the Institute for Scientific Information[3], and is an essential tool for evaluating papers in renowned journals. The current study analyzed features of papers published in WJG with the aid of the search function of the SCIE.

The SCIE was accessed with the Web of Science. SCIE was searched using “World Journal of Gastroenterology” for the publication title and “2006-2007” for publication year. From the papers retrieved, we selected the following information: author(s), title, source, document type, address, cited times and ISSN. The retrieved data were downloaded, saved and managed with the Microsoft Excel.

There were some limitations to the data process: (1) we analyzed only the address of the corresponding author, and not that of all the authors in the paper; and (2) all the papers from WJG and their references were retrieved on May 4, 2009.

RESULTS
Outline of papers published in WJG 2006-2007

Two thousand five hundred and six papers were published in WJG in 2006-2007, including 1311 papers from the categories of article, review and proceedings in 2006 and 1024 from these categories in 2007. Among these papers, 1963 were cited 8788 times by SCIE. The mean number of citations was 3.51 per paper. The highest number of citations for any one paper was 98. The papers with one citation accounted for 25.11% of the total number of cited papers; those with two, 20.17%; those with three, 54.72%; and those with over three, 85.38% (Table 1). Thirteen papers were cited over 30 times (Table 2).

Citation analysis of papers published in WJG 2006-2007

Among the 2506 papers, nine belonged to the “other” category, which included author’s feedback, book reviews, commentaries, editorial announcements, memorials, and news. Within the other 15 categories in WJG, viral hepatitis, reviews and editorials had high citation rates of 92.73%, 92.86% and 92.31%, respectively. The highest average number of citations for the top three columns was 8.89 for reviews, 6.43 for editorials, and 6.00 for topic highlights. The citation rates for case reports and letters to the editor were low, at 64.15% and 54.55%, respectively. Their average number of citations was 1.66 and 1.43, respectively, which were far lower than the total citation rate (78.33%) and average number of citations (3.51) (Table 3). In 2006 and 2007, the total citation rate (with the “other” category excluded) was 85.08% and 70.48%, and the total average number of citations was 4.33 and 2.51.

Geographic distribution of cited authors

The cited authors came from 70 countries. Twenty-nine countries or areas had over 10 cited papers, 11 countries between 5-9 papers, and 29 countries 1-4 papers. China, Japan and the United States were ranked as the top three countries according to the highest total number of citations. The countries with the highest citation rates and average number of citations per paper included Canada (96.30% and 6.89), Hungary (92.31% and 5.62), Australia (88.46% and 5.46), Germany (87.04% and 5.33), and Spain (87.50% and 5.11) (Table 4).

Year of citation for papers published in WJG 2006-2007

The year of citation is shown in Table 5. In 2008, papers published in 2006 and 2007 were cited 3079 and 1780 times, respectively. In 2009, the figures so far are 1101 and 931, respectively. From 2006 to 2009, the self citation rate was 22.16%, 11.33%, 9.41% and 5.01%, respectively.

Distribution of citing journals

The 8788 citations from WJG 2006-2007 were in 1597 journals (Table 6). The American Journal of Gastroenterology, Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy cited papers from WJG most often. Twelve journals each had 40-49 citations from WJG, nine journals had 30-39 citations, 27 journals had 20-29 citations, 115 journals had 10-19 citations, 245 journals had 5-9 citations, 115 journals had four citations, 172 journals had three citations, 285 journals had two citations; and 598 journals had only one citation. These citations were in a wide range of related journals, which implies that WJG has a widespread academic impact.

DISCUSSION

The frequency with which papers from a given journal are cited is a measure of the academic profile and quality of the journal[4]. It is accepted widely that the academic quality of a journal is correlated positively with number of cited numbers in the journal. In citation analysis of papers published from 2006 to 2007 in WJG, 78.33% of all published papers were cited by a journal included in SCIE. Table 1 shows that 1074 papers were cited more than three times, with a total of 7503 citations. These accounted for 54.72% of all papers and 85.38% of the total number of citations. The highest number of citations for one paper was 98, and papers that were cited more than four times accounted for 40.96%.

The use of subsections or categories is useful for reflecting the scope of a given journal. The editors need periodically to evaluate their choice of subsections to facilitate development of the journal, enable academic exchange and attract the attention of readers with different information needs. Among all the categories in WJG, reviews, editorials, topic highlights and esophageal cancer were of most interest to readers. Papers in these categories showed a high citation rate and high average number of citations. However, the categories of H pylori, rapid communications, case reports, letters to the editor and leading articles had fewer citations, which may have resulted from the types of papers and current research trends, and deserves further attention from the journal editors.

The authors of articles published in WJG were from a wide range of countries. From 2006 to 2007, China, Japan, Germany, Italy, USA and Turkey were ranked the top six countries by the number of papers and total number of citations[5]. The authors cited in WJG were also from a large range of 70 countries or regions. The papers written by authors from Canada, Hungary, Australia, Germany and Spain also had a high number of citations.

The impact factor is a routine bibliometric index to evaluate the academic profile of journals. Similar to the number of cited papers, the impact factor is correlated positively with the academic impact. According the criteria for measuring the impact factor in the Journal Citation Report, only the paper types of article, review, and proceedings are taken into account for calculations. The impact factor of WJG in 2008 was 2.081 [(3079 + 1780)/(1311 + 1024) = 2.081]. Regarding publication year, the number of times a paper was cited was low in the year of publication. In the following 2 years, the number of citations increased rapidly, which is consistent with the finding that the peak number of citations is within 2 or 3 years for most publications[6,7].

The number of journals that cite papers from a given journal reflects the academic profile of the journal, its influence, its impact on some specialties, and its attraction to readers from different fields. The papers published in WJG in 2006-2007 were cited 8788 times in 1597 journals. Given the wide range of citing papers and journals, as well as the large proportion of citations in the same field, it is clear that WJG has a widespread influence.

In conclusion, the setting of the subsections in WJG is appropriate. With a high self-citation rate, and citations in papers from different countries and different journals, it appears that WJG is already on the right road and its academic impact and profile are expanding gradually.

Footnotes

Peer reviewer: Sheng-Li Ren, PhD, Department of Publication, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Beijing 100085, China

S- Editor Cheng JX L- Editor Kerr C E- Editor Yin DH

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