Introduction
Pediatric renal transplantation has been heavily published since the 1950s. Herein, we describe the bibliometrics and impact of the 200 most‐cited pediatric renal transplantation manuscripts.
Methods
We identified pediatric renal transplantation publications from 1900 onwards. Year, citations, h‐index, geographic origin, impact factor, topic, and design of the 200 top‐cited papers were extracted. Impact index was calculated, adjusting for citation volume and time since publication.
Results
Of the top 200 papers, mean citation count was 80 ± 40, impact factor 3.9 ± 3.7, h‐index 35 ± 20, and impact index 25 ± 13. Studies were mostly retrospective (31%) or observational (32%). Most papers originated from the United States (58%), Germany (9%), and Italy (6%), which did not correlate with citation counts. Transplantation (18%), Pediatric Nephrology (16%), and American Journal of Transplantation (11%) had the highest publication volume, which did not correlate with citation count. The main topics were medical renal disease, drug monitoring, compliance, and viruses. Most of the top‐cited papers (179; 90%) were published after 1991. The difference in the number of times cited between papers published before and after 1991 was insignificant (75 ± 24 vs 80 ± 42; P = 0.59). There was a difference in impact index for the same period (48 ± 15 vs 22 ± 10; P < 0.01).
Conclusions
The most‐cited papers were concentrated in three journals, but the top three cited papers were published elsewhere. Recent publications were more cited with a higher impact than older papers. Despite the importance of surgery in transplantation, there is a paucity of high‐impact papers on this topic.