Citation Analysis of Articles about Hand Surgery Published in Orthopaedic and Hand Surgery Journals

Abstract

Background: To date, little is known about the characteristics of highly cited studies in hand surgery compared with other orthopaedic subspecialties. We aimed to assess the position of hand surgery within the orthopedic surgery literature. Methods: We conducted a bibliographic analysis using the Web of Science database to review 1,568 articles published between January 2012 and December 2012 in 4 relevant general orthopedic and 2 hand surgery journals. We used the number of citations within 3 years of publication to measure the impact of each paper. To analyze prognostic factors using logistic regression analysis, we extracted data on orthopedic subspecialty, published journal, location of authorship, and type of study for all articles. For clinical studies, we also recorded details on study design and sample size. Results: Of eligible hand surgery articles (n = 307), the majority (62%) were case reports/series. Only 19% were comparative studies, comprising a significantly smaller proportion of comparative studies from other subspecialties in general orthopedic journals. Systematic reviews/meta-analyses generated a significantly higher number of average citations, whereas educational reviews were consistently cited less frequently than other study types (14.9 and 6.1 average citations, respectively). Being published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, American volume, having authorship in North America or Europe and Australia, focusing on subspecialties like hip & knee, sports, or shoulder, utilizing a comparative or randomized clinical trial study design, and having a larger sample size increased the odds of receiving more citations. Conclusions: Clinical studies related to hand surgery published in general orthopedic journals are most often of lower quality study design. Having a larger sample size or using a comparative study or randomized clinical trial design can improve the quality of study and may ultimately increase the impact factor of hand surgery journals.

Characteristics Associated with Citation Rates of the Journal of Korean Orthopaedic Association (An Analysis of Articles between 2001–2015)

“…1,3,4) 국제 학회지에서는 피인용된 횟수를 나타내기 위해 대표적으로 피인용 지수(impact factor)를 포함, h-index, SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper), SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) 등의 여러 지표들을 매년 공지하고 있으며, 5) 많은 학회지에서 주기적으로 해당 학회지의 피인용 특성에 대해 연구 한 결과를 발표하고 있다. [6][7][8][9] 국내 학회지의 경우는 2000년에 시작된 KoMCI (Korean Medical Citation Index) 2000 project를 통해 해당 논문이 국 내 학회지 혹은 국제 학회지에 인용된 횟수를 측정하고 있다. 10) KoMCI에서 제공하는 피인용 횟수는 komci.org 홈페이지에서 (Fig.…”