The Most Disruptive Publications in Craniofacial Surgery (1954-2014)

Emphasis on the quantification and qualification of scientific literature has increased over recent years. The newly validated disruption score is a bibliometric measure that identifies groundbreaking research that eclipses prior research in a specific field of study.

The 100 most disruptive craniofacial surgery publications were identified through query of the 4 top craniofacial journals and 10 of the most prominent Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journals, looking at craniofacial specific publications.

Presented is the compilation and analysis of the 100 most disruptive publications in the field of craniofacial surgery compared to the 100 most cited publications between 1954 and 2014. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery had the most papers in the top 100 (n = 56) followed by Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (n = 22), and British Journal of Surgery (n = 12). The correlation coefficient between disruption scores and citation counts was -0.001 and -0.07 among all papers, and the top 100 most disruptive papers, respectively. For craniofacial journals, Journal of Craniofacial Surgery had the highest average disruption score for all published papers. The most common decade represented in the top 100 was the 1980's (n = 32) and the least common was the 2000's (n = 14). Randomized controlled trials did not comprise a large amount of either the most disruptive (n = 1) or most cited (n = 2) lists.

This is the first use of disruption index score to describe craniofacial surgery research. The disruption score can help recognize paradigm shifts and innovative research in this unique surgical subspecialty.