The top 100 most cited articles on bronchoscopy: a bibliometric analysis

Boxue He,Pengfei Zhang,Xiong Peng,Yuqian Zhang,Hui Xie,Shuai Shi,Xiang Wang,Zhenyu Zhao,Qidong Cai,Wei Yin

doi:10.1186/s12890-020-01266-9

Abstract

BackgroundBronchoscopy is applied broadly in the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary diseases. Over the past few decades, an increasing number of studies about bronchoscopy have been published. However, little is known about their qualities and characteristics.MethodsAll of the databases in Web of Science (including the Web of Science Core Collection, BIOSIS Citation Index, KCI-Korean Journal Database, MEDLINE, Russian Science Citation Index, and SciELO Citation Index) were utilized to identify articles published from 1990 to 2020. The top 100 most cited articles about bronchoscopy were selected for degree centrality analysis and analyses regarding publication time, total citation number, the citation density, time-related flux, first author, published journal, geographic origin, and research theme.ResultsThe selected articles were published mainly in the 2000s and 1990s. Citations per article ranged from 731 to 196. The leading country was the USA, followed by the United Kingdom. The most frequently studied themes were bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and biopsy. The degree centrality analysis connoted that “BAL, inflammation, diagnosis” had a high degree of centrality in the 1990s, while “diagnosis, BAL, biopsy, prospective” took centre stage in the 2000s.ConclusionsThe time, area, and theme distribution of the 100 most cited articles on bronchoscopy have been thoroughly analyzed. It is noticeable that researches based on BAL and endobronchial or transbronchial biopsies currently plays a major role.

Highlights

German laryngologist Gustav Killian performed the first bronchoscopy by using rigid bronchoscopy to remove a pork bone from a patient’s airway in 1897 [1]
It is noticeable that researches based on bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and endobronchial or transbronchial biopsies currently plays a major role
Articles which met the following criteria were included to our study group: (1) The article mainly focuses on bronchoscopy with the topic of technical improvement or evaluation; (2) The article compares the advantages or disadvantages of bronchoscopy and other examination or sampling methods; (3) The article mentions bronchial thermoplasty, bronchial valve surgery or other bronchoscope-based operation to solve clinical problems; (4) The article is mainly based on bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid or bronchoscopy biopsies to get samples for later research

Summary

Introduction

German laryngologist Gustav Killian performed the first bronchoscopy by using rigid bronchoscopy to remove a pork bone from a patient’s airway in 1897 [1]. There is a unique tool called bibliometrics for analyzing the quality and characteristics of published articles. It was first published in JAMA in 1987 and has been widely used in various fields to assess the importance of published articles or research trends [7]. We found that there were quite a few highly cited literature (citation time > 150) on bronchoscopy or utilizing bronchoscopy as the main research method, but no literature on bibliometrics analysis yet. The purpose of this study was to investigate the 100 most cited publications in the field of bronchoscopy, to highlight knowledge milestones in the field, and to analyze the quality and characteristics of the most cited original papers of the past 30 years.

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