833 A bibliometric analysis of obstetrics and gynecology articles with the highest relative citation ratios, 1980-2019

Abstract

The relative citation ratio (RCR) is a novel bibliometric tool that quantifies the impact of research articles. The RCR is calculated by the number of citations that an article receives per year divided by an expected citation rate that is derived from performance of articles in the same field and benchmarked to a peer comparison group. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the OBGYN articles with the highest RCR and compare characteristics of these articles with articles that are top-cited. We performed a cross sectional bibliometric study looking at the OBGYN articles with the highest RCR in the NIH Open Citations Collection (1980-2019). The 100 articles with the highest RCR and the 100 top-cited articles were selected for further review. Each article was evaluated using metrics of influence and translation as well as other characteristics. We compared the top-100 articles with highest RCR versus top-cited articles after excluding articles featured on both lists. We calculated relative risks (95% confidence intervals). A total of 323,673 OBGYN articles were identified. There were 60 articles in common between the highest RCR and top-cited groups. The majority of articles with the highest RCR were observational studies, reviews, and consensus statements, and a minority were randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Articles with highest RCR received fewer absolute citations, but had higher numbers of citations per year. Articles with the highest RCR were more likely to address obstetrics topics, to be RCTs, and to be published open access. Comparison of article characteristics are described in the TABLE. Nearly half of the 100 articles with highest RCR would not have been recognized as citation classics by conventional bibliometric analysis. The RCR is a novel bibliometric tool that does not rely on absolute citation rates and provides important insights into research in OBGYN.