Articles published in the World Joal of Gastroenterology (WJG) have been cited by 361 SCI covered joals, 44.59% of which are joals in the USA and 3.60% in China. Authors from 484 institutions have cited WJG, in which 22.58% of them are in the USA and 18.84% in China. The highest impact factor of SCI joals that have cited WJG is 28.740(Nature Medicine), with 52.95% (n=170) of joals with an impact factor over 2.0. The total citation times of articles published in WJG during 1998-2003 were 484. The total citation times in 2003 were 2736 with 73.24% (2004) selfcitation, 1486 in 2002 with 94.27% (1401) self-citation, 537in 2001 with 92.92% (499) self-citation, 238 in 2000 with 92.43% (220) self-citation and 24 in 1999 with 33.33% (8)self-citation. Articles published in WJG in 2002 were cited 85 times by other SCI covered joals, and 82 articles were cited. The number was increased to 372 and 332 for articles published in 2003, respectively, with increase rates of 337.64% and 304.87%, respectively. Authors who have cited WJG are from 37 countries, and the joals that have cited WJG are from 21 countries. A total of 1020 (57.46%)articles published in WJG were supported by intational or national grants. Authors of WJG articles are from 40countries. Articles published in issues 5-12 in 2003 have been downloaded 53 476 times online. In 2002, WJG was awarded a special grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China. Generally, the percentage of the selfcitation times of articles published in WJG declined from 94.27% in 2002 to 73.24% in 2003. Meanwhile, article numbers and times cited by other SCI covered joals rose to 304.87% and 337.64% respectively. The above data suggested that the WJG underwent rapid development in 2003 with a significant increase in both numbers of cited articles and times of citation.