A total of 484 articles published in World Journal of Gastroenterology are cited by 361 ISI-SCI covered journals distributed in 38 countries during 1998-2003

Table 1 Overall times and numbers of articles cited by other SCI covered journals

Year	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998
Number of cited articles	332	82	38	17	16	0
Number of citations	372	85	38	18	16	0

Table 2 Geographic distribution and numbers of SCI covered journals that have cited articles published in WJG between 1998 and February 2004

List	Country	Number of journals
1	United States	161
2	United Kingdom	78
3	Netherlands	24
4	Germany	15
5	China	13
6	Switzerland	8
7	Denmark	7
8	France	7
9	Greece	6
10	Australia	5
11	Japan	5
12	Ireland	4
13	Poland	3
14	Italy	3
15	Spain	3
16	Norway	2
17	Brazil	2
18	South Korea	2
19	Singapore	1
20	India	1
21	Austria	1

Of the 361 journals, 10 journals’ publishing countries are unknown.

Table 3 Impact factors of SCI covered journals that have cited articles published in WJG

Impact factor	Number of journals (%)
20.699-28.740	4 (1.24)
10.321-18.772	12 (3.73)
6.073-9.825	20 (6.23)
5.095-5.991	14 (6.30)
4.039-4.974	19 (7.88)
3.008-3.991	46 (14.33)
2.013-2.980	55 (17.13)
1.000-1.990	78 (24.29)
0.160-0.996	73 (22.74)

Table 4 Geographic distribution of authors and articles in other SCI covered journals that have cited articles published in WJG

List	Country of authors	Number of articles
1	United States	133
2	China	111
3	Japan	38
4	Germany	35
5	United Kingdom	35
6	Italy	17
7	France	15
8	Australia	11
9	Spain	10
10	Sweden	8
11	Poland	7
12	South Korea	7
13	Netherlands	7
14	Canada	7
15	Belgium	5
16	Singapore	4
17	Austria	3
18	Greece	3
19	Hungary	3
20	Ireland	2
21	Brazil	2
22	Finland	2
23	Norway	2
24	Switzerland	2
25	Turkey	2
26	India	2
27	Czech Republic	1
28	Croatia	1
29	Slovakia	1
30	Argentina	1
31	Pakistan	1
32	Denmark	1
33	Cuba	1
34	Malaysia	1
35	South Africa	1
36	Thailand	1
37	New zealand	1

Table 5 Distribution of institutions of authors who have cited articles published in WJG

List	Country	Higher educational institutions	Research institutions	Medical institutions	Companies	Number of articles
1	United States	91	13	18	11	133
2	China	89	13	6	3	111
3	Japan	30	4	2	2	38
4	Germany	27	4	3	1	35
5	United Kingdom	24	2	3	4	33
6	Italy	13	3	0	1	17
7	France	5	5	5	0	15
8	Australia	7	1	3	0	11
9	Spain	7	1	2	0	10
10	Canada	2	2	1	2	7

Table 6 Citing status of articles published in WJG

Year	Volume	Issue	Articles	Total citations	Average citations per article	Self citations	Average self citation per article	Self citation rate (%)
1998	4	1-6	183	2115	11.55	0	0	0
1999	5	1-6	146	2125	14.55	8	0.05	0.37
2000	6	1-6	212	6205	29.26	220	1.03	3.54
2001	7	1-6	173	8884	51.35	499	2.88	5.61
2002	8	1-6	226	11444	50.63	1401	6.19	12.68
2003	9	1-12	634	22657	35.73	2004	3.16	8.84
2004	10	1-6	201	7309	36.54	630	3.15	8.61

Table 7 Online visiting and downloading of articles published in WJG

Total articles	Articles visited	Articles downloaded	Total visits	Total downloads	Average visits per article	Average downloads per article
603	582	582	127 760	64 145	219.51	110.21

Table 8 Geographic distribution and numbers of authors of articles published in WJG

List	Country	Number
1	China	8 232
2	Japan	198
3	United States	190
4	Germany	125
5	Turkey	116
6	Italy	106
7	United Kingdom	69
8	Singapore	50
9	South Korea	39
10	Hungary	35
11	Australia	32
12	Poland	29
13	Belgium	23
14	India	21
15	South africa	20
16	Netherlands	17
17	Brazil	16
18	Greece	16
19	Sweden	15
20	Finland	14
21	Thailand	14
22	Canada	13
23	Iran	13
24	Pakistan	11
25	Yugoslavia	11
26	Spain	11
27	Israel	11
28	Argentina	9
29	Russia	9
30	Croatia	8
31	Ireland	6
32	Saudi Arabia	5
33	France	4
34	Norway	4
35	Switzerland	3
36	New Zealand	2
37	Egypt	1
38	Estonia	1
39	Denmark	1
40	Dominica	1