Scientometric analysis of Indian Orthopaedic Research in the last two decades

Upsurge in Indian publications in Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

There has been a substantial growth in India's publications in Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in the last few years. In 2022, it ranked number one in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations, number three among Asian countries, and number 14 globally. Its global contribution in the 1996-2022 period was 1.39%, as compared to 6.56% of China (4.72 times lesser), but this gap has reduced in 2022, where India's contribution increased to 2.82%, as compared to 6.32% from China (2.24 times lesser). More concrete efforts are needed to boost the research output from India to further enhance the quantum and quality of publications. It is recommended that adequate research funding and collaboration (national and international) is needed on priority to meet these demands and try to ensure that no good research is wasted, without a publication.

Global trend of publications in orthopaedics and sports medicine: 1996 - 2021

We studied the publication trend in the field of orthopaedics and sports medicine over the last 25 years (1996 - 2021), by various countries, and regions of the world. There was an increasing trend in publications, across the globe. Some of the Asian countries like China, and India have shown a substantial growth in their research output. Europe continent has contributed the most publications in the last 25 years, whereas the United States as a country has been on the top of the list of contributors. Most research-publications came from high-income countries and disproportionately less from low- and middle-income countries.

Scientometric analysis of highly cited papers on avascular necrosis of the femoral head from 1991 to 2022

INTRODUCTION

A highly cited paper (HCP) is considered a landmark that can influence both research and clinical practice. The characteristics of HCPs in avascular necrosis of the femoral head (AVNFH) were identified and the research status was explored in a scientometric analysis.

METHODS

The present bibliometric analysis were based on the Scopus database from 1991 to 2021. Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer were used for co-authorship, co-citation, and co-occurrence analysis. From 8496 papers, only 2.9% (244) were HCPs, with 200.8 citations registered per article.

RESULTS

Of the HCPs, 11.9% and 12.3% were externally funded and had international collaboration, respectively. These were published in 84 journals by 1625 authors from 425 organizations of 33 countries. The USA, Japan, Switzerland, and Israel were the leading countries.The lead research organizations were Sinai Hospital and John Hopkins University (USA). The most impactful organizations were University of Arkansas for Medical Science, and Good Samaritan Hospital (USA). R.A. Mont (USA) and K.H. Koo (South Korea) were the most prolific contributing authors, while R. Ganz (Switzerland) and R.S. Weinstein (USA) registered the most impactful contributions. The most prolific publishing journal was the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

CONCLUSION

The HCPs contributed to the knowledge of AVNFH by examining research perspectives and identifying important subareas through keyword analysis.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Not applicable.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Not applicable.

A scientometric analysis of India's publications in arthroplasty in the last two decades from the SCOPUS database

Objectives

This study evaluates the publication output of the Indian authors on the topic of Arthroplasty research from 2002 to 2021, using bibliometric methods.

Methods

The Indian publications as listed in the Scopus database were identified by using "Arthroplasty" or "Joint Replacement" in the keyword ("Key") tag.

Results

India contributed 872 publications on Arthroplasty research, constituting a 1.36% share of global output, in the last two decades. Knee Arthroplasty accounted for the largest share (52.4%) in India's output, followed by Hip (35.7%) and others. 841 authors from 413 organizations participated unevenly in the research on this topic, with IISc-Bangalore contributing the largest number of publications (97), followed by Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals (46), Breach Candy Hospital, Bombay(40), and PGIMER, Chandigarh(38). R. Malhotra contributed the largest number of publications (55), followed by R. Vaishya (35 papers) and G.M. Shetty (23 papers). S. Bhan (31.0 and 3.17), A.B. Mullaji (30,13 and 3.08), N.P. Jain (25.75 and 2.63) and H.Pandit (21.88 and 2.24) registered the highest CPP & RCI. The journals which published the highest number of Arthroplasty articles were the Journal of Arthroplasty (123), followed by the Journal of Clinical Orthopaedics & Trauma (50) and International Orthopaedics (32).

Conclusion

India's contribution in the field of Arthroplasty-related publication is still low on a global platform, however, has shown a positive and increasing trend in the last two decades. The maximum publications were related to knee and hip arthroplasty and were from institutions in the major Indian cities of Delhi and Mumbai. More international and multicentric collaboration and external funding may help improve the number of arthroplasty publications in the future.