Pediatric surgical research over the last decade: A bibliometric citation analysis

Abstract

Objectives: A way of identifying significant works from a plethora of published material is by a bibliometric analysis. The citation count of a particular article indicates its influence within the readership. A survey of the top 10 articles (in terms of citations per year) in pediatric surgery from each of the three leading international journals (Journal of Pediatric Surgery [JPS], European Journal of Pediatric Surgery [EurJPS], and Pediatric Surgery International [PSI]) and the foremost Indian journal (Journal of Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons [JIAPS]) should give an insight into the research that has been quoted the most in the last decade. Through an extensive literature search, this paper aims to identify, analyse and categorize the characteristics of the most cited papers in pediatric surgery in the last decade, worldwide and in India. Material and Methods: The number of citations of all articles from 4 journals (JPS, EurJPS, PSI, JIAPS) published between January 2013 and May 2022 were sorted using the “Publish or Perish®” software (version 8). The top 10 articles in each journal (by citations per year) published between January 2013 and May 2022 were then tabulated into a Microsoft Excel® sheet and details including the topic studied, citations per year, year of publication and type of study were noted. Results: Out of the 40 articles, there were 13 review articles and 27 original articles – 12 retrospective reviews, 6 consensus papers, 6 surveys and 3 animal research studies. 15 of these articles were from the United States of America (USA), 12 were from Europe and 3 were global, spanning continents. Among the top 10 cited papers from JIAPS, 8 were from India. The most commonly covered topics were esophageal atresia, necrotizing enterocolitis, acute appendicitis and Hirschsprung’s disease. Conclusion: The most influential manuscripts relate to common neonatal surgical conditions and appendicitis. This information should be of value to upcoming pediatric surgeons to choose their prospective research and create a long-lasting impact on the field of pediatric surgery. For the editorial team, it provides an insight into the kind of articles that are of interest to pediatric surgeons.