Cruciate ligament: density-equalizing mapping and scientometrics as a measure of the current scientific evaluation

Abstract

The topic “cruciate ligament” is of increasing interest due to improved diagnostic methods and the necessity to cure “modern” leisure time sports injuries. Publications have increased strongly since the 1990s. In this respect, it is difficult for a scientist to obtain an overview of a topic he/she is interested in. Scientometrics is a relatively new method to evaluate research efforts, to detect single areas of interest and to quantify the scientific impact of publications according to a particular topic. By comparing quantitative (i.e. number of published items) and qualitative factors (i.e. h-index, Impact-Factor or Citation rate), it is possible to evaluate this analysis methodically. In the period 1903–2007, a number of 9,806 published items were included in the ISI-Web referring to “cruciate ligament”. The publications were published by 59 countries demonstrating the USA, Germany and the UK as the most productive ones. The “American Journal of Sports Medicine” was determined to be the most prolific journal and “WOO, SLY” as the most prolific author dealing with “cruciate ligament”. The USA, Sweden, Finland and Norway take a leading position in citation per item rankings. In this respect, further analysis of the citations revealed the tendency of a disproportional high self-citation rate for some countries (e.g. Sweden, Finland). Self-citations lead to high average citations rates and distort further qualitative parameters (i.e. Impact-Factor, h-index). In this respect, the value of these parameters should be considered from a critical point of view. Furthermore, it might be useful to establish parameters which limit co-authorship and exclude self-citations to obtain more sustainable results.