Abstract
PURPOSE: The aim was to verify if changing the Journal of Gastric Cancer (JGC) to only English (starting in December 2010) was successful based on bibliometrics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The following indicators were retrieved or calculated from the journal homepage and the Web of Science Core Collection on January 30, 2016: the number of citable articles per year; the number of original articles funded; the national origins of the editorial board members and authors; the total citations; the impact factors; the national origins of authors citing the journal; the source titles of articles citing the journal; and the Hirsch index. RESULTS: From 2011 to 2015, the number of citable articles per year was 40, 41, 39, 39, and 40. The proportion of original articles funded was 39 out of 113 articles (34.5%). The editorial board members were from seven countries. The authors were from 11 countries. The total citations increased from 1 in 2011 to 245 in 2015. From 2013 to 2015, the impact factors (without self-citations) were 1.42, 1.36, and 1.60. In 2014, the value 1.60 corresponded to the ranking of 157 out of 210 oncology journals (74.8%); It was cited from 46 countries. Top-ranking countries of citing authors were China (171), Korea (158), and Japan (75). The number of source titles citing the journal was more than 100. The Hirsch index was 12. CONCLUSIONS: The English-only language policy, which started in December 2010, was successful in promoting the JGC to international levels from the perspective of bibliometric analysis.