Müller Martin, Gloor Beat, Candinas Daniel, Malinka Thomas
Department of Visceral Surgery and Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland.
Dig Surg. 2016;33(6):509-19. doi: 10.1159/000446930. Epub 2016 Jun 15.
Even though citation analysis has several limitations, it is a commonly used tool to determine the impact of scientific articles in different research fields.
The study aims to identify and systematically review the 100 most cited articles in the field of visceral surgery focusing on papers that modified therapeutic concepts and influenced the surgeons' decision making.
The 100 most cited clinical articles in visceral surgery were identified using Journal Citation Reports and Science Citation Index Expanded of the Web of Science (Thomson Reuters, Philadelphia, Pa., USA). Data for characterization of the articles were determined: Number of citations, research topic, journal, publication time, authorship, country of origin, type of article and level of evidence if reasonable.
The 100 most cited articles were published in 17 journals; 72 articles were found in the 3 journals: New England Journal of Medicine (38), Annals of Surgery (21) and Lancet (13). The oldest article was published in 1908 in Annals of Surgery (ranked 76th) and the most recent in 2012 in Lancet (65th). Eighty articles were published between 1990 and 2010. The number of citations ranged from 667 to 4,666 (median 925). The leading country of origin was the United States with 39 articles, followed by articles originating from more than one country (30). There were 45 interventional studies (27 randomized controlled trials), 32 observational studies, 19 reviews and 4 guidelines, definitions or classifications. The level of evidence was low (IV) in 42 articles and high in 35 articles (Ia or Ib). A high number of citations did not reflect a high level of evidence.
The topics and research questions of the identified articles covered a large area of visceral surgery. Some of the milestones in visceral surgery were identified. The high impact measured by citations did not reflect a high quality of research (level of evidence) in a considerable number of publications.
尽管文献引用分析存在若干局限性，但它仍是用于确定不同研究领域科学文章影响力的常用工具。
本研究旨在识别并系统综述内脏外科领域被引用次数最多的100篇文章，重点关注那些改变了治疗理念并影响外科医生决策的论文。
利用《期刊引证报告》以及科学网（汤森路透，美国宾夕法尼亚州费城）的《科学引文索引扩展版》，确定内脏外科领域被引用次数最多的100篇临床文章。确定文章特征的数据如下：引用次数、研究主题、期刊、发表时间、作者、原产国、文章类型以及合理情况下的证据水平。
被引用次数最多的100篇文章发表在17种期刊上；其中72篇发表于3种期刊：《新英格兰医学杂志》（38篇）、《外科学年鉴》（21篇）和《柳叶刀》（13篇）。最古老的文章于1908年发表在《外科学年鉴》上（排名第76位），最新的文章于2012年发表在《柳叶刀》上（第65位）。80篇文章发表于1990年至2010年之间。引用次数范围为667至4666次（中位数为925次）。原产国领先的是美国，有39篇文章，其次是来自多个国家的文章（30篇）。有45项干预性研究（27项随机对照试验）、32项观察性研究、19篇综述以及4项指南、定义或分类。42篇文章的证据水平较低（IV级），35篇文章的证据水平较高（Ia或Ib级）。高引用次数并不反映高水平的证据。
所确定文章的主题和研究问题涵盖了内脏外科的广泛领域。确定了内脏外科的一些里程碑。引用所衡量的高影响力在相当数量的出版物中并未反映出高质量的研究（证据水平）。
