A Bibliometric Analysis of 4 Major Foot and Ankle Surgery Journals

Bibliometric analysis of 100 most influential papers related to septic arthritis of native joints

Aim

Bibliometric studies have gained popularity since they are able to define the characteristics of articles on specific subjects. The aim of this study was to analyze the characteristics of 100 most-cited papers related to septic arthritis of the native joints.

Methods

Web of Science database was analyzed and 100 most-cited articles about septic arthritis were determined. The characteristics of the articles including publication year, country, journal, study type, and sponsorship were recorded and investigated for any possible relationship with citation numbers. The visualization of the most commonly used keywords was made by software.

Results

The highest citation number and density were 309 and 21.6, respectively. The highest contribution was from the USA with 44 articles. The most common study type was case series with 26 articles. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases journal had the highest number of articles with 8 papers. Fifteen studies were funded. The average citation density of review articles was significantly higher than in clinical and basic science studies (p < 0.001). Citation density was positively correlated with publication year and institution number, while it was negatively correlated with the level of evidence.

Conclusion

This study summarizes the general characteristics and research trends of the 100 most influential septic arthritis papers. Citation density and level of evidence performance were better in more recent articles. Additionally, citation density was higher in papers that included contributions from multiple institutions and papers with a high level of evidence. However, a high level of evidence is lacking indicating the need for better study design in future research.

Characteristics and research trends of 50 most-cited hallux rigidus papers

BACKGROUND

The bibliometric studies in the field of orthopaedics have gained popularity since they can determine the characteristics and research trends of most influential papers in specific subjects. This study aimed to evaluate the 50 most-cited articles related to hallux rigidus, and analyze possible factors associated with increased citation counts.

METHODS

The available literature about hallux rigidus on Web of Science database until January 2021 were analyzed and the 50 most-cited articles were determined. The characteristics of the papers were documented and analyzed for any relationship or correlation with total citation or citation per year (citation density) values.

RESULTS

The average citation number and citation density were 52.8 (range: 26-243) and 3 (range: 0.8-12.8), respectively. The average author number was 3.4, while the average institution number was 1.9. The USA had the highest number of articles with 29. Twenty-six papers were case-series, only 3 studies had level 1 and only 2 had level 2 evidence. The highest number of articles were published in Foot and Ankle International with 22 papers. Forty papers were clinical studies while 10 were reviews. Five studies were multicentric.

CONCLUSION

This study provided the general characteristic and research trends of 50 most influential hallux rigidus papers. The number of institutions and references were positively correlated with citation density, indicating a higher chance of getting cited for papers with collaborations from different institutions and papers using more references from other works. Publication year was also positively correlated with citation density, indicating the better performance of more recent articles.

LEVEL OF CLINICAL EVIDENCE

Level 3.