VCU Gastroenterology research papers ranked 4th in most cited papers

Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine has been ranked fourth among federally funded U.S. universities based on the average number of citations per research paper published in indexed journals of gastroenterology and hepatology between 1999 and 2003.

VCU’s Division of Gastroenterology in the Department of Internal Medicine deals with the field of medicine concerned with the function and disorders of the digestive system, including the liver.

“The principal factor contributing to this is the core belief that our job is not only to provide state of the art care to patients but to advance the understanding and knowledge related to gastrointestinal (GI) and liver diseases,” said Arun J. Sanyal, M.D., chair of VCU’s Division of Gastroenterology.

VCU published 90 gastroenterology and hepatology-related papers during the period reviewed by Thomson ISI Essential Science Indicators — a resource that enables researchers to conduct ongoing, quantitative analyses of research performance and to track trends in science. VCU’s papers received an average of 12.42 citations each.

The No.1-ranked university was the University of Chicago with 13.62 citations per paper, followed by Yale University with 13.18 citations per paper and New York University with 12.82 citations per paper. VCU followed in the No. 4 spot and the University of Southern California was the No. 5 university with 12.25 citations per paper.

Along with Sanyal, some of VCU’s most cited investigators include Mitchell L. Shiffman, M.D.; Gabriel M. Makhlouf, M.D., Ph.D.; John Grider, Ph.D.; Karnam S. Murthy, M.D.; and Philip B. Hylemon, M.D.

“This is recognition of the consistently high quality of work done in the division,” said Sanyal. “From a patient perspective, it means that the GI and liver programs have expertise and skills that are not available at many other academic and tertiary care centers and for most GI and liver diseases, we have treatment options that are not available elsewhere.”

The VCU Medical Center has a large and active gastroenterology group that is particularly known for its expertise in all aspects of liver disease and intestinal smooth muscle biology. Twenty adult and pediatric gastroenterologists work in collaboration with specialists in gastrointestinal pathology, radiology, oncology and surgery to provide comprehensive, state of the art medical care to patients with digestive disorders.

Thomson ISI, a unit of the Thomson Corp., provides information for researchers and scholars. Its Essential Science Indicators is an in-depth analytical database that indexes 8,600 journals from around the world on various topics and ranks authors, institutions, countries and journals.

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