This paper shows the research and application level of geographical science, and reveals the present situation of researches, the characteristics and its system and regional distribution, based on the statistical analysis on the articles, authors and quotations published in Acta Geographica Sinica from 1984 to 2003. The law of the quotations followed by authors, the number and proportion of the core authors and their groups have been obtained. Some conclusions are put forward: (1) 1181 signed articles by 836 first authors were published, which are related to the various fields of geographical science. The authors are distributed all over the country and the core authors mainly in Beijing, Jiangsu and Shanghai. (2) The degree of the cooperation about authors is 2.4 and the average rate of co-authorship is 65.0%. The degree of cooperation and the rate of co-authorship increased year by year, which indicates the quality requirements for articles become increasingly higher. (3) The rate of the first prolific author groups is 9.8% with articles published being about 26.7% of the total. This indicates it is a very important task for geographic circles to train more and more leaders of the discipline and to enhance research of geographical science by creating good conditions. (4) The time of lag of publication of the articles was shortened since the year 2000, which is not only favorable for authors to publish high quality articles as soon as possible but also favorable for readers to obtain new information about geographical science. At the same time, it is propitious to bring into play the guiding role of the journal in theory and practice. (5) The amount of the average quotations is 12.6 for each article, which is more than the average quotation of the existing journals in China (8.86). The literature cited was mainly in Chinese and English. The number of the Chinese quotations was 9315, about 62.7%; that of the English quotations was 5470, about 36.8%; and other language quotations, only 62. The quotations of the Acta Geographica Sinica were mainly Chinese, but the number of English reference increased year by year. Finally, the paper also affirms the rationality of the Journal as one of the authorized key issues in natural science in China.