An Audit of Top Citations Published in Pediatric Emergency Care

The aim of this study was to identify and compare the 100 articles published in Pediatric Emergency Care (PEC) from its inception in 1985 to date that are most often cited.

Three online citation indices, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, were examined to identify the 100 top cited articles from PEC. Mean citation numbers were used to rank the studies, due to differences in the results among the 3 citation indexes. Median citation number, country of origin, study topic within the field of pediatric emergency medicine, and year of publication were compiled, compared, and analyzed. Those articles that had an outcome with the same mean citation number were listed in the table in alphabetical order according to the last name of the primary author of the publication.

Mean citation numbers were used to identify the 100 most often cited articles from PEC. The citation counts ranged from a high of 132 to a low of 42 citations, the median being 55. Research for 84 of the 100 articles was conducted in the United States with no other country contributing more than 3 articles each. The top subjects of these articles (and their frequencies) included infectious disease (12), resuscitation (11), anesthesia (10), and toxicology (9). The number 1 ranked article was graduate medical education (GME) related and evaluated resident training/education, with respect to the field of resuscitation. All articles in the top 100 cited were published between 1985 and 2010. The top publication years included 1997, 2000, and 2001, wherein 9 articles were published in each of those 3 years. Of the top 100 articles cited, 78% were published in 1997 and later.

In reviewing the literature and to our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind in the field of pediatric emergency medicine to determine the influence of articles in a journal by evaluating citation number. It identified the 100 articles with the highest number of citations that were utilized in subsequent journal articles and published in PEC since 1985. The clinical relevance of identifying the most popular article topics cited supports the value to the pediatric emergency medicine readership of emphasizing subjects of core curriculum content for further education. In addition, reviewing the literature using PEC as a source for articles published 10 to 15 years ago can be helpful because these articles may be considered benchmark articles that many authors choose to cite, creating an impact in their more recent publications.