About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology

Overview and identity

The World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG) is a weekly, peer-reviewed, open-access medical journal covering gastroenterology and hepatology, published by the Baishideng Publishing Group (BPG). It was established on October 1, 1995, as the China National Journal of New Gastroenterology, and was renamed the World Journal of Gastroenterology in 1998 (some publisher accounts give the renaming date as January 15, 1998). The journal is identified by print ISSN 1007-9327 and online ISSN 2219-2840, and its articles carry DOIs beginning 10.3748/wjg. Although Baishideng is now headquartered in Pleasanton, California, the journal's production centre has been in Chaoyang District, Beijing, and the journal is catalogued in this directory under Beijing, China, reflecting its Chinese origin and production base. The editor-in-chief named in standard references is Andrzej S. Tarnawski of California State University, Long Beach. WJG is the flagship and most important journal of the Baishideng group.

History and the Baishideng Publishing Group

WJG's history is the history of its publisher. Baishideng's earliest publication dates to January 15, 1993, when it launched the Chinese-language Journal of New Digestology, later renamed the World Chinese Journal of Digestology. On October 1, 1995 it launched its second journal, the English-language China National Journal of New Gastroenterology, which became the World Journal of Gastroenterology. To edit and publish the two journals, the Baishideng BioMed Scientific Co., Ltd. was established on December 11, 2006, and the modern Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited was formed from its predecessor on July 7, 2010. From these two digestology titles, BPG expanded into a publisher of dozens of "World Journal of..." titles across medical specialties; by 2017 it published 43 journals, 42 in English and one in Chinese. The group joined the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers in 2017, is a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, and all of its journals are members of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Scope and editorial structure

WJG is an international journal dedicated to advancing research and clinical practice across the full spectrum of gastroenterology and hepatology. Its stated scope includes gastroenterology and hepatology generally; gastrointestinal oncology and precision medicine; endoscopy and minimally invasive interventions; gastrointestinal surgery; epidemiology and population health; mechanistic research in genetics, molecular biology and immunology; diagnostic imaging and pathology; and nutrition and multidisciplinary care. Historically the journal organised much of its content into editorial categories such as basic research, clinical research, diagnostic advances and therapeutics advances, written by members of a very large international editorial board — its 2014 instructions to authors recorded an editorial board of 1,353 experts in gastroenterology and hepatology from 68 countries. The journal's primary task, in its own words, is to rapidly publish high-quality articles in order to improve the diagnostic and therapeutic skills of clinicians, and to become an influential journal in gastroenterology and hepatology worldwide.

Publication pattern

WJG is published weekly, appearing on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of each month, a frequency almost unmatched among specialty medical journals and one that produces a very large annual article volume. It has operated on an open-access, peer-reviewed model throughout its modern history: articles are freely available on the publisher's website and through PubMed Central, and the publisher reports that the articles of its journals included in PubMed Central are used by thousands of readers daily. The publisher reports a mean acceptance rate of around 30 per cent. Its weekly rhythm and open-access model make it one of the highest-volume outlets in world gastroenterology publishing, and its archive extends continuously from 1995 to the present.

Indexing, metrics and the 2004 delisting episode

WJG is abstracted and indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE, also known as SciSearch), Scopus, the Reference Citation Analysis database, the China Science and Technology Journal Database and other services. Its bibliometric history includes a notable episode: in 2004 the journal was delisted from the Journal Citation Reports for excessive self-citation, but it was restored to the index in 2008, at which time its impact factor was determined to be 2.081. By 2020 its impact factor had risen to 5.742, ranking it 28th of 92 journals in the Gastroenterology and Hepatology category, and the publisher reports a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 7.7 in the 2026 edition of Journal Citation Reports, with a five-year impact factor of 6.2, a Q1 ranking and a 2025 CiteScore of 8.3 (ranked 17th of 176 in gastroenterology by Scopus CiteScore). These figures place WJG among the more highly cited general gastroenterology journals in the world by the mid-2020s.

Critical discussion of the publisher

Any accurate profile of WJG must record that its publisher has attracted critical scrutiny. Baishideng Publishing Group was listed on the original Beall's List of potential predatory open-access publishers, and it was named in a 2019 cover story of the Canadian magazine The Walrus as a "junk publisher" alongside several other controversial publishers. The publisher has responded to such characterisations by emphasising its memberships of ALPSP, OASPA and COPE and its compliance with scientific and ethical standards. The journal itself is indexed in SCIE and Scopus and has a long, continuous publication record with a named editor-in-chief and a large international editorial board, features that distinguish it from short-lived or fraudulent titles. Readers and authors should nonetheless be aware of the debate and evaluate individual articles on their merits, as with any high-volume open-access journal.

Readership and authorship

WJG's authorship is global, with a particularly large contribution from China and East Asia, reflecting both its origins and the volume of digestive research produced in the region. Its readership comprises gastroenterologists, hepatologists, endoscopists, gastrointestinal surgeons and basic researchers in digestive science. Because China carries a very large burden of gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis and cirrhosis, the Chinese clinical series and population studies published in WJG are a significant resource for the international community, and the journal's English language and open access make them freely usable. Its weekly publication schedule and broad scope also make it a common destination for review articles and meta-analyses synthesising digestive research.

Relationship to sister publications

WJG is the second journal of the Baishideng group and the senior English title in a large family. Its Chinese-language sister, the World Chinese Journal of Digestology, shares its 1993 lineage and its Beijing production base. Around WJG, BPG built a suite of subspecialty titles including the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology, World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery and World Journal of Gastrointestinal Pathophysiology, each with its own ISSN and launch date. WJG remains the group's flagship: it is the title the publisher itself describes as its most important weekly journal.

How to cite and identify the journal

The reliable identifiers of the World Journal of Gastroenterology are its exact title, print ISSN 1007-9327, online ISSN 2219-2840, DOI prefix 10.3748, its publisher Baishideng Publishing Group, its launch date of October 1, 1995 under the former name China National Journal of New Gastroenterology, and its weekly open-access publication pattern. It should not be confused with its Chinese-language sister, the World Chinese Journal of Digestology (ISSN 1009-3079), or with the Journal of Digestive Diseases, a separate Wiley society journal. Cited by title and ISSN, WJG uniquely identifies the journal described in this profile.