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Using the Disruptive Score to Identify Publications That Changed Plastic Surgery Practice
Daniel C Neubauer1, Jessica D Blum2, Stephanie G Labou3
1From the Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA.
Annals of Plastic Surgery
|September 23, 2023
Summary
The disruption score (DS) identifies paradigm-shifting plastic surgery publications. Technical innovation and creativity drive academic impact, suggesting DS should supplement citation counts for evaluating scientific contributions.
Area of Science:
- Plastic Surgery
- Academic Publishing
- Bibliometrics
Background:
- Traditional citation counts inadequately measure academic impact.
- The disruption score (DS) quantifies paradigm shifts in research.
- This study applies DS to plastic surgery literature.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify the most disruptive publications in plastic surgery using the DS.
- To evaluate the impact of academic contributions beyond simple citation metrics.
Main Methods:
- Searched 7 plastic surgery journals (1954-2014) for articles.
- Calculated the disruption score (DS) for each publication.
- Analyzed the top 64 disruptive papers by topic, study type, and citation count after exclusions.
Main Results:
- Identified 32,622 articles with DS ranging from 0.385 to 0.923.
- The top 64 disruptive papers had a mean DS of 0.539, 195 citations, and 9 references.
- Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery published the most disruptive papers (50); most studies were technical descriptions or case series.
Conclusions:
- The DS effectively measures paradigm shifts in academic contributions.
- Technical innovation and creativity are key drivers of impactful plastic surgery research.
- The DS should be integrated into future academic success evaluations for quality assessment.
