Citation classics in central nervous system inflammatory demyelinating disease

To identify and analyze the characteristics of the most influential articles about central nervous system (CNS) inflammatory demyelinating disease.

The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science database and the 2014 Journal Citation Reports Science Edition were used to retrieve the top 100 cited articles on CNS inflammatory demyelinating disease. The citation numbers, journals, years of publication, authorships, article types, subjects and main issues were analyzed. For neuromyelitis optica (NMO), articles that were cited more than 100 times were regarded as a citation classic and described separately.

The top 100 cited articles were published between 1972 and 2011 in 13 journals. The highest number of articles (n = 24) was published in Brain, followed by The New England Journal of Medicine (n = 21). The average number of citations was 664 (range 330-3,897), and 64% of the articles were from the United States and the United Kingdom. The majority of the top 100 cited articles were related to multiple sclerosis (n = 87), and only a few articles reported on other topics such as NMO (n = 9), acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (n = 2) and optic neuritis (n = 2). Among the top 100 cited articles, 77% were original articles. Forty-one citation classics were found for NMO.

Our study provides a historical perspective on the research progress on CNS inflammatory demyelinating disease and may serve as a guide for important advances and trends in the field for associated researchers.