Factors Associated with Low and High Article Citations in Four Prominent Orthopaedic Surgery Journals
AUTHORS
- PMID: 32952926[PubMed].
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Research is a cornerstone for the advancement of clinical practice and guidelines across all medical and surgical fields. To achieve significant contribution to the field, research must be circulated, read, and understood.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to investigate which factors are associated with higher and lower citation rates in orthopaedic surgery literature.
METHODS: A query was performed to identify all of the primary research articles published between 1998 and 2008 in four prominent orthopaedics journals. From there, the 50 most highly and lowly cited articles were identified and analyzed for various factors that distinguished the highly cited group from the lowly cited group. Various statistical tests were used depending on the type of variable being evaluated.
RESULTS: After data compilation and statistical analysis, 16 statistically significant factors were apparent that differed between the two groups. Seven non-statistically significant factors were also identified.
CONCLUSION: This study illustrates that certain statistically significant factors influence the citation rates of papers in orthopaedic surgery literature. If utilized appropriately, these factors could lead to increased consumption and circulation of future orthopaedic surgery literature.