Citation Analysis in Bariatric Surgery.

Abstract

There have been many publications listing classic or top citations in various medical and surgical fields. Citation analysis can reflect major advances in the history of a specific field. It also serves to identify key authors, centers, countries, and journals that have played an integral role in the development of a given field or specialty. Furthermore, it reveals the characteristics of studies that garner the most attention, and summarizes current trends [1]. In an effort to identify and characterize the most highly cited articles published on bariatric and metabolic surgery, our group had searched the Scopus database in December 2013 using 14 different key words. The report of the 50 most frequently cited articles in bariatric and metabolic surgery was published last year (Epub 2014, Jan 29) [1]. In the study entitled BThe hundred most cited articles in bariatric surgery^ published in the Obesity Surgery journal [2], the authors searched Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge with two key words (obesity and bariatric surgery) in September 2014. Using only two key words, the authors have missed several top-cited articles in our field. A comparison between findings of the two studies is detailed in Table 1. The study by Ahmad et al. has missed almost one third (16 of 50) of highly cited articles that we reported in our literature search. Notably, the authors’ search strategy missed Buchwald’s landmark meta-analysis which comprehensively analyzed the effect of bariatric surgery on weight and comorbidities for the first time [3]. This meta-analysis is the most cited bariatric surgery article of all time (2526 Citations) and among the most highly cited articles in general surgery. Among the other important omissions are two Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) studies [4, 5] and two randomized clinical trials of surgical vs. medical treatment of diabetes [6, 7] (Table 1). Furthermore, some studies that seem irrelevant to bariatric surgery such as BChildhood obesity: public-health crisis, common sense cure (ranked #4)^ are included in the reported list as a highly cited bariatric surgery article. These methodological shortcomings severely limit the findings of this study and cannot accurately demonstrate the highly cited papers in the field of metabolic and bariatric surgery. Therefore, the subsequent analyses and discussion do not include some of the most impactful publications in recent years. A more appropriate title for the published article would be BThe hundred most cited articles using the key words bariatric surgery and obesity.^ To exclude the important terms from the search strategy clearly limits the extent to which this paper reflects our evolving field. * Philip R. Schauer schauep@ccf.org