Trend of academic publication activity in anesthesiology: A 2-decade bibliographic perspective

The publication of anesthesiology papers presents the importance of understanding the corresponding research activity. This research used the bibliographic method to investigate the publication trend in anesthesiology using Science Citation Index Expanded over the period 1995-2014.

The journals listed in the subject category of anesthesiology in the 2014 Journal Citation Reports were selected, and bibliographic information was collected from Science Citation Index Expanded, with 128,003 papers published from 1995 to 2014. Only the document type "article" was analyzed. The productivity and impact of various journals, countries, and institutions are discussed.

A total of 64,199 articles published from 1995 to 2014, with 1,084,491 cited times, were examined. The total number of articles published by journals showed a slight increase in the 2^nd decade. More than 45% of these articles were published by the top five journals, which have maintained their ranking over 2 decades. Most publications originated from North America and European countries, of which the United States had the highest number of publications and citations. Most of the institutions are academic universities and hospitals. More than half of the top 25 institutions (in rankings) are located in the United States, and Harvard University accounted the highest number of articles and citations among all institutions.

The results reported here may aid clinicians and researchers to better understand the worldwide contribution of anesthesiology research activities over 2 decades.