OBJECTIVEThe Chinese Journal of Hepatology is a key journal in the research field of liver diseases in China. Ranked by the impact factor, which was issued and used by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, it is in fourth position among medical journals in China. In order to evaluate the journal, some facts about it were surveyed, including the number of pages, the number of papers in each issue, organizations of the authors, funding for their works, the impact factor, immediacy index, statuses of the articles' references, and a listing of their being cited.

METHODSThe number of pages of each issue, the number of papers in every volume, and citations were quantitatively analyzed. Funding, impact factor, immediacy index, citations and organizations of the authors were analyzed by weighted Rank Sum Ratio (RSRw).

RESULTSIn the five years, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003, (1) The Chinese authors came from 26 of the 31 provinces and cities in China. 48.8% in 1999 to 71.7% in 2003 of the authors were working in medical universities or medical colleges, and some authors were overseas experts. (2) The number of articles cited in the five years were 702, 1158, 1087, 1178 and 1744. (3) The number of papers published were 248, 221, 242, 212 and 336. (4) Impact factors of the journal were 0.897, 0.931, 1.421, 1.858, 1.440. With the cites, immediacy index, cited rate, ratios of research provided by national or international funds and number of organizations of authors evaluated, the RSRw results of the five years were 0.2750, 0.3417, 0.5000, 0.5000 and 0.5000.

CONCLUSIONThe Chinese Journal of Hepatology is well-known and is one of the highest academic quality medical journals in China. It reflects the progress of liver disease research in China.