Highly cited publications in pediatric neurosurgery.

OBJECT

The number of citations a publication receives can be used as a surrogate for the impact that article has made on its discipline. This study identifies and characterizes the most cited articles in pediatric neurosurgical journals as of April 2013.

METHODS

We examined four clinical pediatric neurosurgery journals. The 100 most cited articles in the overall literature and the top 50 articles from 2002 to 2012 were examined. The following information was recorded for each article: number of authors, country of origin, citation-count adjusted for number of years in print, topic, and level of evidence.

RESULTS

The 100 most cited articles appeared in three of the four journals: Child's Brain, Pediatric Neurosurgery and Child's Nervous System. Publication dates ranged from 1975 to 2006; 21 were prospective studies, 64 were retrospective, and 81 were either class 4 evidence (case series, n = 70) or review articles (n = 11). Citations ranged from 65 to 193 (mean of 90); average adjusted citation count per year was 4.5. The 50 most cited articles from 2002 to 2012 appeared in Child's Nervous System, Pediatric Neurosurgery, and JNS: Pediatrics. Four were prospective studies, 25 were retrospective, and 38 of the total (76 %) were either class 4 evidence (n = 24) or review articles (n = 14). Citations ranged from 41 to 125 (mean of 54); average adjusted citation count per year was 6.3.

CONCLUSION

An original paper in pediatric neurosurgery having a total citation count of 50 or more, and an average citation count of 5 per year or more can be considered a high impact publication.