Wang Jennifer, Schafer Charles, Steele Thomas, Janis Jeffrey E, Losken Albert
From the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Ga.
Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio.
Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open. 2024 Nov 5;12(11):e6263. doi: 10.1097/GOX.0000000000006263. eCollection 2024 Nov.
Evidence-based medicine in plastic surgery is essential to provide optimal care to individual patients. Level of evidence (LOE) and number of citations are metrics used to gauge quality of research and impact within a field, respectively. The objective of this study was to determine an association between LOE and number of citations within recently published articles in (PRS).
A review of original research articles published in PRS from January 2018 to June 2022 was performed. LOE was identified through the PRS website, and the number of citations identified via PubMed. Articles were further divided into sections of their corresponding topic.
A total of 965 articles were reviewed, of which 21 (2.2%) were articles assigned level I evidence. There were 147 (15.2%) level II articles, 360 (37.3%) level III articles, 377 (39.1%) level IV articles, and 60 (6.2%) level V articles. The average number of citations per article was 2.72, and the average LOE of all included articles was 3.31. Level I articles had an average of 4.95 citations, whereas level II, III, IV, and V articles had averages of 2.95, 2.54, 2.64, and 2.71, respectively. Breast articles were cited on average 3.85 times each, more than any other type of article.
Our data show that articles assigned level I evidence in PRS trend toward higher numbers of citations compared with articles assigned lower LOEs. These findings should encourage investigators to publish high-quality research to advance the field of plastic surgery.
整形外科学中的循证医学对于为个体患者提供最佳治疗至关重要。证据水平（LOE）和引用次数分别是用于衡量研究质量和该领域影响力的指标。本研究的目的是确定在《整形与重建外科》（PRS）近期发表的文章中证据水平与引用次数之间的关联。
对2018年1月至2022年6月在PRS上发表的原创研究文章进行综述。通过PRS网站确定证据水平，并通过PubMed确定引用次数。文章进一步按照相应主题进行分类。
共审查了965篇文章，其中21篇（2.2%）被评为I级证据文章。有147篇（15.2%）II级文章，360篇（37.3%）III级文章，377篇（39.1%）IV级文章，以及60篇（6.2%）V级文章。每篇文章的平均引用次数为2.72，所有纳入文章的平均证据水平为3.31。I级文章平均有4.95次引用，而II级、III级、IV级和V级文章的平均引用次数分别为2.95、2.54、2.64和2.71。乳房相关文章平均每篇被引用3.85次，高于其他任何类型的文章。
我们的数据表明，与证据水平较低的文章相比，PRS中被评为I级证据的文章引用次数有更高的趋势。这些发现应鼓励研究人员发表高质量的研究，以推动整形外科学领域的发展。
