Most cited publications in oral and maxillofacial surgery: a bibliometric analysis

Citation is one of the most important forms of acknowledgment and recognition received by our peers in academia. This study identifies and characterizes the current topmost highly cited publications in journals specifically dedicated to the specialty. The purpose of this study is to identify, using the citation count, works that have made key contributions in the field and to provide insight into the direction the specialty has taken in the last 30 years.

Four journals that were dedicated to the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) were selected. The SCOPUS database was utilized to perform a citation analysis on the top 200 publications in the month of May, 2017. Each publication was individually reviewed for the number of citations, the source journal of the manuscript, its year of publications, the article type, the country of origin, the study type, and the level of evidence. We categorized every manuscript within a subspecialty.

The number of citations ranged from 2824 to 118 over the last four decades. The majority of the manuscripts were published in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (60.5%) followed by the International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (25%). Only 3% of these publications were of level I evidence. The most frequent field of publication was benign pathology (18.5%) followed by dental implantology (19%) and then craniomaxillofacial trauma (12%) and craniomaxillofacial deformities (12%). The majority of the publications were articles, of which 59.5% were case-control, case series, or cohort studies. Nine of the top 20 most cited articles and 12.5% of all the most cited papers were related to osteoradionecrosis, osteochemonecrosis, and bisphosphonates. The majority of these publications originated in the USA (44%), followed by Sweden (9.20%), the Netherlands and UK (7.76%), and Germany (5.82%).

Despite considerable advances in the quality of both clinical and laboratory research, only six level I studies were identified. Osteonecrosis/bisphosphonates and platelet-rich plasma were frequent topics indicating the recent interests in these fields. The USA has continued to play a major role in the research; however, there needs to be more international, multi-institutional cooperative collaborations.