One Hundred Citation Classics in General Surgical Journals

Abstract

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 objective was to identify and analyze the characteristics of the 100 most frequently cited articles published in journals dedicated to general surgery and its close subspecialties. Using the database (1945-1995) of the Science Citation Index of the Institute for Scientific Information, 1500 articles cited 100 times and more were identified and the top 100 articles selected for further analysis. The 100 articles were published between 1931 and 1990, with more than two-thirds of them published after 1960. The mean number of citations per article was 405, (range 278-1013). Altogether, 84 of the articles originated from North America (USA 78, Canada 6) and the UK (12). New York State led the list of U.S. states with 14, and Harvard and Columbia University led the list of institutions with 6 articles each. The 100 articles were published in 10 surgical journals led by the Annals of Surgery (n = 40), followed by Surgery (n = 15), Archives of Surgery (n = 12), Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics (n = 11), and British Journal of Surgery (n = 10). A total of 80 of the articles reported clinical experiences, 6 were clinical review articles, and 14 dealt with basic science. Eighteen articles reported a new surgical technique and six a prosthetic device. Gastrointestinal surgery and trauma and critical care led the list of the surgical fields, each with 25 articles, followed by vascular surgery (n = 15). Thirty-four persons authored two or more of the top-cited articles. This list of the top-cited papers identifies seminal contributions and their originators, facilitating the understanding and discourse of modern surgical history and offering surgeons hints about what makes a contribution a "top-cited classic." To produce such a "classic" the surgeon and his or her group must come up with a clinical or nonclinical innovation, observation, or discovery that has a long-standing effect on the way we practice-be it operative or nonoperative. Based on our findings, to be well cited such a contribution should be published in the English language in a high-impact journal. Moreover, it is more likely to resonant loudly if it originates from a North American or British "ivory tower."

The 50 Most Cited Papers in Craniofacial Anomalies and Craniofacial Surgery

“…This trend has been noted by many other citation analysis studies [10][11][12]. According to the Institute of Scientific Information the US holds the highest ranking in all 20 scientific disciplines [15,16].…”

“…Once the fifty most cited papers were identified, a further analysis of each paper using criteria described by Paladugu et al [11] was performed. This involved evaluating each individual paper to reveal it's subject matter, authorship, article type, institution and year of publication.…”

“…Although the validity of this method is disputable in defining a journal's worth, many scientific journals still aim to improve their IF, recognizing this as a fundamental marker of journal quality [8,9]. Several articles on citation classics have been published in various specialities including anaesthetics, general surgery, otolaryngology, plastic surgery, radiology and orthopaedics [10][11][12][13][14][15]. However, there has never been a bibliometric analysis of the most cited papers in the field of craniofacial anomalies and surgery.…”

The 100 most cited spine articles

“…In addition to determining the most frequently cited articles, this analysis is also used to rank journals in terms of impact. Multiple medical fields have used a rank list to determine the impact of articles and journals within its specialty, such as otolaryngology [1,2], emergency medicine [3,4], dermatology [5][6][7], general surgery [8], trauma surgery [9], plastic surgery [10], physical medicine and rehabilitation [11], urology [12], ophthalmology [13], obstetrics and gynecology [14], critical care [15,16], anesthesiology [17], neurosurgery [18], orthopedics [19][20][21], pediatric orthopedics [22], and orthopedic trauma [23]. However, to date, no analysis has been made for those in spine care.…”

The 100 top-cited articles in orthodontics from 1975 to 2011

“…2 The Web of Science, an intelligent research platform, has access to the world's leading citation databases, making cited reference searching possible. 3 Recently, numerous citation analyses and top-cited articles have become available in various specialties, such as dermatology, 4 general surgery, 5 anesthetics, 6 plastic surgery, 7 urology, 8 neurosurgery, 9 rehabilitation, 10 ophthalmology, 11 orthopedic surgery, 12 and endodontics. 13 In the past 4 years, more analogous articles have been found in the Science Citation Index.…”