The most influential articles in Helicobacter pylori research: A bibliometric analysis

The number of articles that researchers must be familiar with is increasing, along with the importance of selective searching and summarization. This study aimed to assess and characterize the most influential articles in Helicobacter pylori research.

We performed a search of the top-100 cited articles using the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) and Google Scholar from their inception to 2018. The top-100 Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) articles based on online media mentions were also searched using the term H pylori. Each article was evaluated for the following characteristics: citation number, title, journal, publication year, and authorship.

The citation number for the top-100 WoSCC articles ranged from 44 to 367. Gut published the largest number of articles (11%). In the top-100 Google Scholar articles, Lancet had the largest number of articles (13%); however, among the top-1000 cited articles published after 2012, Helicobacter published the largest number (46%). The largest number of top-100 AAS articles was published by PLOS Pathogens (6%). PubMed Central articles' citations in WoSCC or Google Scholar showed significant correlation with those from each metric; however, AAS showed no correlation. The proportion of basic research was 36%-37% in top-cited articles; but, 52% in the top-100 AAS articles. No time trend in the number of publications or citations of basic/clinical research in the top-100 bibliometrics was found. "Meta-analysis/systematic review," "gastric cancer," "eradication," and "association" were the most influential title words.

This study presents a detailed list of top-100 articles, journals, authors, and topic title words.