One hundred vascular surgery citation “classics” from the surgical literature

Bibliometric analysis of publication activity in the field of Giant cell arteritis: a Scopus-based study

Objective  Giant cell arthritis (GCA) is a type of vasculitis which is more common in female gender and is closely associated with Polymyalgia rheumatic. One of its important complication include visual impairment. The burden of disease is expected to be very high by 2050 and there is a need to compile the data on most influential studies on GCA to define future strategy to deal with this dangerous disease. Bibliometrics is a statistical analysis of published literature that reflects the value and impact of a particular publication within the specific field. Aim of our study is identify the most significant contributors and their quality of contribution in the field.

Method  We conducted this analysis utilizing SCOPUS database using different related MeSH terms. After a detailed screening, the list of top-50 articles were presented in the results in descending order of their ranks on the basis of their total number of citation. Most of our data comprises of publications from 1971–2012.

Result  The top-50 most cited articles on GCA were published between 1971 and 2012 with the median number of citations 274 ranging from 598–187. Annals of Internal Medicine was the top ranked journal with 13 publications from the list. The highly ranked author based on the number of publications was Hunder GG (20 publications) with h-index of 40, retaining affiliation with Mayo Clinic, Rochester, United States. Mayo Clinic was the most frequently mentioned institute among the affiliations. The United States was found to be the most productive country rendering most of the articles (64%).

Conclusion  Our bibliometric analysis on Giant cell arteritis identifies the information which may direct future research contributions, identify field experts, guide researchers to fill knowledge gaps, and assist in research fund allocation.

The 100 most cited articles in the endovascular management of acute ischemic stroke

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) has revolutionized the management of acute ischemic stroke. Landmark clinical trials have shown EVT to be one of the most efficacious interventions in clinical medicine over the past 5 years. A method of recognition for an article in the scientific community is to use a citation rank list, in order to identify the seminal works in the academic medical literature. The objective of this study was to characterize the 100 most highly cited articles assessing endovascular management of acute ischemic stroke.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective bibliometric analysis using the Web of Science Citation Index Expanded database for the most cited works in the endovascular management of acute ischemic stroke. Citation count was used to rank the top 100 articles, which were then analyzed for authorship, year of publication, subject, study type, level of evidence, and subject.

RESULTS

The mean number of citations was 245 (range 65-1726) and 394 on Google Scholar. The top 100 articles were cited an average of 43.9 times per year and published in 21 journals in the past two decades. The majority of papers (62) were classified as constituting levels 1, 2, or 3 evidence, and included 17 randomized controlled trials. Approximately two-thirds of the top 100 articles originated from the USA.

CONCLUSIONS

This study details the most cited articles in the endovascular management of acute ischemic stroke, and furthermore shows that a high proportion of level I evidence exists for this intervention.

The 100 most cited articles in the endovascular management of intracranial aneurysms

INTRODUCTION

Endovascular interventions for intracranial aneurysms have evolved substantially over the past several decades. A citation rank list is used to measure the scientific and/or clinical impact of an article. Our objective was to identify and analyze the characteristics of the 100 most cited articles in the field of endovascular therapy for intracranial aneurysms.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective bibliometric analysis between July and August 2017. Articles were searched on the Science Citation Index Expanded database using Web of Science in order to identify the most cited articles in the endovascular therapy of intracranial aneurysms since 1945. Using selected key terms ('intracranial aneurysm', 'aneurysm', 'aneurysmal subarachnoid', 'endovascular', 'coiling', 'stent-assisted', 'balloon-assisted', 'flow-diversion') yielded a total of 16 314 articles. The top 100 articles were identified and analyzed to extract relevant information, including citation count, authorship, article type, subject matter, institution, country of origin, and year of publication.

RESULTS

Citations for the top 100 articles ranged from 133 to 1832. All articles were cited an average of 27 times per year. There were 45 prospective studies, including 7 level-II randomized controlled trials. Most articles were published in the 2000s (n=53), and the majority constituted level III or level IV evidence. Half of the top 100 articles arose from the USA.

CONCLUSION

This study provides a comprehensive overview of the most cited articles in the endovascular management of intracranial aneurysms. It recognizes the contributions made by key authors and institutions, providing an important framework to an enhanced understanding of the evidence behind the endovascular treatment of aneurysms.

Fifty years of hemodialysis access literature: The fifty most cited publications in the medical literature

Objectives

The modern era of hemodialysis access surgery began with the publication in 1966 by Brescia et al. describing the use of a surgically created arteriovenous fistula. Since then, the number of patients on chronic hemodialysis and the number of publications dealing with hemodialysis access have steadily increased. We have chronicled the increase in publications in the medical literature dealing with hemodialysis access by evaluating the characteristics of the 50 most cited articles.

Methods

We queried the Science Citation Index from the years 1960–2014. Articles were selected based on a subject search and were ranked according to the number of times they were cited in the medical literature.

Results

The 50 most frequently cited articles were selected for further analysis and the number of annual publications was tracked. The landmark publication by Dr Brescia et al. was unequivocally the most cited article dealing with hemodialysis access (1109 citations). The subject matter of the papers included AV fistula and graft (9), hemodialysis catheter (9), complications and outcomes (24), and other topics (8). Most articles were published in nephrology journals (33), with fewer in surgery (7), medicine (7), and radiology (3) journals. Of the 17 journals represented, Kidney International was the clear leader, publishing 18 articles. There has been an exponential rise in the frequency of publications regarding dialysis access with 42 of 50 analyzed papers being authored after 1990.

Conclusion

As the number of patients on hemodialysis has increased dramatically over the past five decades, there has been a commensurate increase in the overall number of publications related to hemodialysis access

The hundred most cited publications in orthopaedic hip research - a bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to identify the 100 most cited classics in the field of hip research analysing their qualities and characteristics.

METHODS

Hip joint related articles were identified and the hundred most cited selected for subsequent analysis of citation count, current citation rate, citation density (citations/article age), authorship, geographic origin institution, and level of evidence (LOE).

RESULTS

In a total of 121 journals, 1,311,851 articles were published between 1945 and 2013, of which 1,287 (0.1%) possessed 250 citations or more. Total citations per article for the 100 most-cited ranged from 290 to 3,144 citations.The most common areas of research were degenerative disease and arthroplasty, followed by hip preserving surgery for which the leading authors were William H. Harris and Reinhold Ganz respectively. All articles were published in 8 journals and originated from 9 countries. 10 institutes published 48/100 of the articles. There was a significant negative correlation between both citation rate, citation density and article age. Total citation count was highest for articles published in the decade of 1970. Although 5% (2,103 articles) of hip literature comprised randomised trials (RCTs), only 1 (1%) of the citation classics was an RCT.

CONCLUSIONS

The study provides intellectual milestones in hip research, reflecting on the qualities and characteristics of the research. Degenerative hip disease and arthroplasty research take up the greatest proportion of citations, followed by hip preserving research. LOE was low and there was only one RCT amongst the classics, emphasising that high LOE is not a prerequisite for a high citation count.

Citation classics in acute pancreatitis

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES

The number of times an article is cited in scientific journals reflects its impact on a specific biomedical field or specialty and reflects the impact of the authors' creativity. Our purpose was to characterize the most frequently cited articles about acute pancreatitis.

METHODS

We utilized the 2010 edition of Journal Citation Reports and Social Sciences Citation Index database to determine the most frequently cited articles published after 1956. The 100 most frequently cited articles were selected. Articles were evaluated for several characteristics including number of citations, publication time, country of origin, institution, journal, publication type of article and authorship.

RESULTS

The most frequently cited article received 1281 citations and the least frequently cited article received 163 citations, with a mean of 266.65 citations per article. These citation classics were published in 31 high-impact journals, led by Gastroenterology. Of the 100 articles, 56 were clinical observational studies, 20 concerned basic science and 15 were review articles. The articles originated from 16 countries, with the United States contributing 47 articles; 56 institutions produced these 100 top-cited articles, led by University of Ulm (9 publications) and New York University (9 publications); 23 persons authored 3 or more of the top-cited articles led by Imrie (10 publications).

CONCLUSION

"Citation classics" about acute pancreatitis are detected in both experimental and clinical research field, which provide a historical perspective on the scientific progress and allow for recognition of important advances in this specialty.