Top 100 most‐cited papers in core dental public health journals: bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Objective: This quali-quantitative study analysed the 100 most-cited papers in core dental public health (DPH) journals focusing on understanding international knowledge production. Methods: The DPH journals were selected from titles and scopes at Web of Science Core Collection database up to March 2020. Further comparisons were performed at Scopus and Google Scholar databases. Some bibliometric parameters were extracted as follows: title, number of citations, citation density (number of citations per year), first author's country, year of publication, study design and subject. VOSviewer software was used to create graphical bibliometric maps. Results: Papers were ranked by the total number of citations, which ranged from 104 to 1,019, and six papers were cited more than 400 times. Papers were published from 1974 to 2013, mainly in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology. Most frequent study designs were cross-sectional (30%) and nonsystematic review (25%). Most papers were from Europe (54%) and North America (31%). First authors were predominantly from the United Kingdom (17%), United States of America (17%) and Canada (14%). VOSviewer map of co-authorship demonstrated the existence of clusters in the research collaboration. Although epidemiology was the most frequent subject (84%), health services research presented eight times higher citation density. Conclusions: Top 100 most-cited papers in core DPH journals were predominantly observational studies from Anglo-Saxon countries. Top 100 most-cited papers in core DPH journals tend to be cross-sectional studies carried out in the United States with highest citation in health services research. Locker D, Petersen PE and Sheiham A are a landmark for DPH field. K E Y W O R D S bibliometric analysis, bibliometrics, citation index, dental public health, public health | 41 MATTOS eT Al. MATTOS eT Al. milestones for oral health in the world. Those citations pictured that dental public health investigations spread along time and beyond geographic barriers. This study is helpful for journal editors to better understand the relevance of DPH papers in the international scientific scenario. The knowledge of topics, study designs and authors more frequently cited by peers can help policymakers, clinicians and researchers choose scientific evidence for their decision-making processes.

The Top 100 Most Cited Articles Published in Dentistry: 2020 Update

“…A distinctive characteristic of this analysis was that it included 10 evidence level-1 studies, including systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and RCTs. These findings do not coincide with the findings of several other bibliometric analyses performed on various specialties within dentistry and medicine [17,25,41,49,[74][75][76]. Recently, these high evidence level studies have been performed and are securing high citations, despite only being published in the recent years [77].…”

“…Elsevier's Scopus (ES), Google Scholar (GS) and Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science (WoS) may differ quantitatively or qualitatively with respect to the citation count of a publication depending upon the discipline of the study [12,16,41], journals [42], and years [43] in which they were published. Additionally, some publications might not be available in all of these search engines [16,25,44,45]. There were several reasons for not selecting either GS or WoS databases as the benchmark for this analysis.…”

“…Moreover, ES is regarded as the largest citation and abstract search engine of peer-reviewed literature. It is devised to aid researchers in not only accessing scientific information but screening literature for the purpose of analysis [48], and it has been employed in numerous published bibliometric analyses [25,49]. In ES, citation analysis is faster and includes more publications than that of WoS [50].…”

“…The definition of "classic article" has been a controversial topic across disciplines̶ the most commonly suggested criterion has been the securing of a certain citation count, for instance, at least 400 citations [9,23,24]. However, a publication having accomplished 100 or more citations can also be termed as a "classic publication," depending upon the field under consideration, such as dentistry [25].…”

The Top 100 Most Cited Articles Published in Dentistry: 2020 Update

“…This method has been adopted in different dentistry subfields including endodontics, orthodontics, periodontology, implant dentistry, prosthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, dental traumatology, dental caries, oral squamous cell carcinoma, oral submucous fibrosis, oral leukoplakia, cleft lip and palate, and medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. The definition of “classic article” has been a controversial topic across disciplines, and the most commonly suggested criterion has been the securing of a certain citation count, for instance, at least 400 citations [ 8 , 23 , 24 ]. However, a publication having accomplished 100 or more citations can also be termed as a “classic publication,” depending upon the field under consideration, such as dentistry [ 25 ].…”