1997 was a good year for Gut. We have continued our editorial policy to increase the number of sections in the journal. In addition to commentaries, we have introduced a new section, Science Alert, which aims to highlight important scientific advances relevant to gastroenterology. We are screening the major basic science journals for papers which we believe will be of interest to Gut’s readership and we have asked experts to summarise the work and explain its importance to gastroenterology.

We were keen to define the profile of papers published inGut as concern had been raised that the journal was becoming excessively orientated towards basic science and perhaps have less appeal to practicing clinicians. Gut certainly has no such policy. For the British Society of Gastroenterology Diamond Jubilee supplement, Tom MacDonald’s analysis showed that the most cited papers in …