A Scientometric Analysis of 20 Years of Research on Breast Reconstruction Surgery: A Guide for Research Design and Journal Selection

Abstract

BackgroundBreast reconstruction refers to the rebuilding of a woman's breast using autologous tissue or prosthetic material to form a natural-looking breast. It is increasingly offered to women undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer. However, there is no systematic analysis available for the expanding area of research on breast reconstruction.MethodsA bibliometric method was used to obtain a view of the scientific production about breast reconstruction by data extracted from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Specific parameters were retrieved from the ISI. Articles about breast reconstruction were analyzed to obtain a view of the topic's structure, history, and document relationships using HistCite software. Trends in the most influential publications and authors were analyzed.ResultsThe number of articles was constantly increasing. Most highly cited articles described the methods of flap construction in the surgery. Other highly cited articles discussed the psychological or emotional aspects of breast reconstruction, skin sparing mastectomy, and breast reconstruction in the irradiated breast.ConclusionsThis was the first breast reconstruction scientometric analysis, representing the characteristics of papers and the trends of scientific production. A constant increase in the number of breast reconstruction papers and also the increasing number of citations shows that there is an increasing interest in this area of medical science. It seems that most of the research in this field is focused on the technical aspects of surgery.

A bibliometric analysis of the top 50 most cited articles published in the Dental Traumatology

“…It serves to evaluate the clinical and scientific importance of a publication in a specific area of knowledge . The topics, as well as study designs of the highly cited articles, have the potential to influence trends in clinical practice and future research . Furthermore, citation analysis recognizes the significant contributions of particular authors, institutions, countries, and journals within a specific scientific community …”

“…6 The topics, as well as study designs of the highly cited articles, have the potential to influence trends in clinical practice and future research. [7][8][9] Furthermore, citation analysis recognizes the significant contributions of particular authors, institutions, countries, and journals within a specific scientific community. [10][11][12] Bibliometric citation analysis has been performed in medicine including the topics of ophthalmology, 13 orthopedic surgery, 14 orthopedic oncology, 15 orthopedic elbow surgery, 16 urology, 17 surgery, 18 emergency medicine, 19,20 respiratory system, 21 pituitary adenoma, 22 osteosarcoma, 22 gastric cancer, 23 hepatocellular carcinoma, 24 inflammatory bowel diseases, 25 tuberculosis, 26 headache disorders, 27 asthma 28 as well as in dentistry 29 including the sub-specialties of pediatric dentistry, 30 endodontics, 31 regenerative endodontics, 32,33 dental, oral and maxillofacial traumatology, 34 oral and maxillofacial surgery, 35 implant dentistry, 36 orthodontics, 37,38 periodontology, 39 medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ), 5 oral leukoplakia, 12 squamous cell carcinoma, 40 cleft lip and palate, 4 ameloblastoma, 41 pre-malignant oral lesions, 42 and oral submucous fibrosis.…”

A historical review of classic articles in surgery field

“…15 Classic papers, 16 also called top cited articles 17 or top publications, 18 have been studied in various medical fields in the last decade, such as orthopedic surgery, 19 ophthalmology, 20 critical care medicine, 21 urology, 22 pediatric surgical research, 23 occupational medicine, 24 periodontology, 25 traumatic spinal cord injury, 26 trauma, 27 anesthesia and pain, 28 obstetrics and gynecology, 12 and plastic surgery. 29 Scientific specialties have also used the method of bibliometric analysis to evaluate certain operations, for example, wrist arthoscopy, 30 breast reconstruction surgery, 31 and functional neurosurgery. 32 Further evaluations have been applied by data mining of the published papers, including levels of evidence in foot and ankle surgery literature, 33 and trend of India's contribution to the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery.…”

A bibliometric analysis of the 50 most cited papers in cleft lip and palate

“…Bone grafts were still evolving using the iliac crest bone [44]. It is at this point in time that external distraction methods are introduced and also further implications of the Robin Sequence [27,39,43,60], Finally in 2000 there is a shift to prenatal diagnosis of cleft defects [65], Similar to other citation studies, there is an upward trend in the number of papers being published in this specialty in recent years [81]. According to the Pubmed database there were 2162 and 3129 cleft publications in the 1990s and 2000s, respectively.…”

“…It includes "self-citing", "language bias" -citing only articles published in the English language, and "Omission bias" . "Omission bias" occurs when authors deliberately omit referencing another paper as both papers have conflicting results [7,81]. "Journal bias" occurs when high impact factor journals only publish articles that are guaranteed to be repeatedly referenced, such as sys tematic reviews, with the intention of increasing the journals impact factor [9,15].…”