The top 100 most cited scientific reports focused on diabetes research

The number of citations that a paper has received reflects the impact of the article within a particular medical research area. However, which articles are cited most frequently in diabetes research is unknown. We aimed to identify the most frequently cited 100 articles that describe advances focused on diabetes research.

Science Citation Index Expanded database was used to determine the 100 most cited articles in diabetes research. The key characteristics of the top 100 cited articles, including citation ranking, year of publication, publishing journal, type of study, h-index, PMC citation, patent citation, country of origin, funding source, and authorship, were analyzed.

The number of citations ranged from 10292 to 1121. The 100 most cited articles were published between 1962 and 2010. New England Journal of Medicine published the largest number of the most cited articles (n = 23), followed by Diabetes Care (n = 14) and Nature (n = 12). The greatest number of contributions came from the USA, followed by the UK and Canada. RCT was the most popular article type, followed by basic science studies and observational studies. There was a positive correlation between total citations and h-indexes and PMC citations, while there was no correlation with patent citations.

The most influential report in diabetes research seems to be RCT, which is performed to confirm the effectiveness and outcome of anti-diabetes drugs in patients with diabetes. This study presents insight into the historical development of diabetes research, and provides foundations for further investigations.