Scientific publications on orthopedic surgery from three major East Asian countries (2012-2021)

East Asia is the most dynamic region in the world and includes three major countries: Japan, South Korea and China. Due to rapid economic growth, orthopedics research in East Asia has achieved great advances during the past 10 years. However, the current status of orthopedic research in Japan, South Korea and China is still unclear.

To understand the current status of orthopedic research in Japan, South Korea, and China.

Journals listed in the ''Orthopedics'' category of Science Citation Index Expanded subject categories were included. The PubMed and Web of Knowledge electronic databases were searched to identify scientific publications from the selected journals written by researchers from Japan, South Korea and China. A systematic analysis was conducted to analyze orthopedic research articles published in the three countries based on the number of articles, study design, impact factors (IFs) and citations. Furthermore, we also ranked the top 10 countries worldwide with the highest publications in the past 10 years. Additionally, we ranked the top 10 countries with the highest number of publications in the world in the past 10 years. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 20.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, United States), and statistical results are given in Tables and Figures. The Kruskal-Wallis test and the Mann-Whitney test were used to detect differences between countries. The tendency regarding the number of articles was analyzed by curvilinear regression. A two-tailed P < 0.05 was considered significant.

From 2012-2021, a total of 144518 articles were published in the 86 selected orthopedic journals. During this period, the number of worldwide published orthopedic articles has shown an annual increasing trend. A total of 27164 orthopedic research articles were published by Japan, South Korea and China during the past 10 years; 44.32% were from China, 32.98% were from Japan, and 22.70% were from South Korea. From 2012 to 2021, the annual number of articles markedly increased in each of the three countries. Over time, the worldwide share of articles increased substantially in South Korea (3.37% to 6.53%, P < 0.001) and China (5.29% to 9.61%, P < 0.001). However, the worldwide share of articles significantly decreased in Japan (5.22% to 3.80%, P < 0.001). The annual total IFs of articles from China were well above those of articles from Japan and South Korea (36597.69 vs 27244.48 vs 20657.83, P < 0.05). There was no significant difference among the articles in the top 10 high-IF orthopedics journals published from those three countries [South Korea (800) > China (787) > Japan (646), P > 0.05].

Over the past 10 years, China's scientific publications in orthopedic journals have shown an increasing trend. Considering the relative scale of the populations, Japan and South Korea have outpaced China with respect to quality.