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A Systematic Bibliometric Analysis of High-Impact Articles in Critical Care Nephrology
Jaye Platnich1, Janice Y Kung2, Adam S Romanovsky1,3
1Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta and Alberta Health Services, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Insights
This bibliometric analysis identified the top 100 high-impact articles in critical care nephrology. These influential papers, primarily original studies and clinical trials, focus on renal replacement therapy and acute kidney injury, guiding future research and education.
Area of Science:
- Critical care nephrology as an emerging subspecialty.
- Interdisciplinary approach merging critical care and nephrology.
Background:
- Critical care nephrology integrates critical care and nephrology due to shared pathobiology and clinical needs.
- No prior systematic identification of high-impact articles in this field existed.
- This study addresses the need to identify seminal works in critical care nephrology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically identify and rank the highest impact articles in critical care nephrology.
- To provide a resource for understanding the field's most influential research.
- To inform curriculum development and future research directions.
Main Methods:
- Bibliometric analysis of articles published between 2000 and 2020.
- Search conducted in Web of Science, requiring a minimum of 30 citations and original data.
- Top 100 articles ranked by expert adjudication, citations, and journal impact factor.
Main Results:
- Identified 100 high-impact articles from 2,805 initially screened.
- Top articles predominantly featured randomized trials (44%) and observational studies (35%).
- Key themes included renal replacement therapy (42%) and acute kidney injury (30%).
Conclusions:
- Critical care nephrology has significantly matured as a subspecialty.
- High-impact research primarily consists of original studies, particularly clinical trials.
- The identified list serves as a valuable resource for education, research stimulation, and quality assurance.
Introduction:
Critical care nephrology is a subspecialty that merges critical care and nephrology in response to shared pathobiology, clinical care, and technological innovations. To date, there has been no description of the highest impact articles. Accordingly, we systematically identified high impact articles in critical care nephrology.
Methods:
This was a bibliometric analysis. The search was developed by a research librarian. Web of Science was searched for articles published between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2020. Articles required a minimum of 30 citations, publication in English language, and reporting of primary (or secondary) original data. Articles were screened by two reviewers for eligibility and further adjudicated by three experts. The "Top 100" articles were hierarchically ranked by adjudication, citations in the 2 years following publication and journal impact factor (IF). For each article, we extracted detailed bibliometric data. Risk of bias was assessed for randomized trials by the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Analyses were descriptive.
Results:
The search yielded 2,805 articles. Following initial screening, 307 articles were selected for full review and adjudication. The Top 100 articles were published across 20 journals (median [IQR] IF 10.6 [8.9-56.3]), 38% were published in the 5 years ending in 2020 and 62% were open access. The agreement between adjudicators was excellent (intraclass correlation, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.84-0.99). Of the Top 100, 44% were randomized trials, 35% were observational, 14% were systematic reviews, 6% were nonrandomized interventional studies and one article was a consensus document. The risk of bias among randomized trials was low. Common subgroup themes were RRT (42%), AKI (30%), fluids/resuscitation (14%), pediatrics (10%), interventions (8%), and perioperative care (6%). The citations for the Top 100 articles were 175 (95-393) and 9 were cited >1,000 times.
Conclusion:
Critical care nephrology has matured as an important subspecialty of critical care and nephrology. These high impact papers have focused largely on original studies, mostly clinical trials, within a few core themes. This list can be leveraged for curricula development, to stimulate research, and for quality assurance.
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