The 50 Most-cited Articles in Gastroenterology and Hepatology from Mainland China.

Objective: To identify and analyze the 50 most-cited gastroenterology and hepatology articles originating from mainland China.

Methods: We utilized the 2015 edition of Journal Citation Reports and PubMed to determine the 50 most-cited gastroenterology and hepatology articles from 75 professional journals and four leading journals in clinical medicine, which are The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and The British Medical Journal. Then we excluded the articles written outside mainland China and collected the basic information, including the title, authors, year of publication, source journal, city, institution, number of citations, and topic of the research.

Results: The number of citations for the top 50 papers ranged from 279 to 89 (mean, 129). These articles were published between 2005 and 2012, in which 2009 was the year with the largest number of highly cited papers(13). All articles were published in 15 journals. The journal Hepatology published the largest number of articles(21), followed by Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology(4), Journal of Hepatology(4) and World Journal of Gastroenterology(4). The top 50 articles originated mainly from Shanghai(20), Guangzhou(13) and Beijing(6). Sun Yat-sen University produced most highly cited papers(10). The number of basic research was far more than clinical research, of which the ratio was about 1.78(32:18). In all these articles, hepatocellular carcinoma was the most-discussed topic(19), followed by hepatitis B virus(8) and endoscopic(5).

Conclusions: Although a large gap remains between mainland China and the global community, the gastroenterology and hepatology research from China is gradually recognized by the world.