A bibliometric analysis of orthopedic publications originating from Turkey

The objective of this study was to analyze the research productivity originating in Turkey using articles published in the top 40 orthopedic journals according to the Journal Citation Reports for 2013.

All scientific papers published in English and included in the Science Citation Index Expanded between 1980 and 2013 were analyzed using the "Web of Science". The number of publications per million (PmP) was calculated. All selected journals were analyzed for the numbers of articles, authorships, institutions and 100 most frequently cited papers.

From a total of 130,494 articles published worldwide, the United States ranked first according to output. Turkey ranked 14th in the number of orthopedic publications and 26th out of 30 countries in the PmP index. 2012 produced the greatest number of publications worldwide and 2008 for Turkey. Gunal I., Yazici M. and Ozturk C. were the most frequent contributors. Hacettepe University, Istanbul University and Ankara University were the most frequent intuitions among all Turkish publications. The Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery was the most frequently published journal in this period with a rate of 16.3%. There was a total of 9,085 (8,765; excluding self-citations) citations of the 1,398 publications published in Turkey until December 2013, with a citation-to-work ratio of 7.47 and an h-index of 34.

With the newly established universities, as well as training and research clinics, the approach of increasing number of orthopedics and traumatology clinics and specialists to scientific activities would be more fruitful in the light of these data.