Insights from the top-cited papers in the critical care nursing literature: A bibliometric and visualized analysis

Highly cited papers in critical care nursing can offer valuable insights for all stakeholders engaged in the research process by highlighting key research trends, guiding resource allocation and shaping future research priorities.

To gain insights from the top-cited papers in the top critical care nursing journals.

This was a bibliometric analysis of the top-cited papers in the top critical care nursing journals as reported by the Journal Citation Report 2023-released in June 2024. Data were tabulated and visualized using Microsoft Excel and the VOSviewer software.

Forty papers from the top four critical care nursing journals (Intensive and Critical Care Nursing [ICCN], Nursing in Critical Care [NICC], Australian Critical Care [ACC] and American Journal of Critical Care [AJCC]) were analysed. Half of the analysed papers were related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and mental health was the most addressed theme (n = 11 papers). Papers from the ICCN featured contributions from 17 countries, the highest among the journals analysed, followed by NICC, with contributions from 11 countries. Articles received more citations than reviews (median [interquartile range]: 18 [9-23] vs. 8 [8-11.5]), and open-access papers were cited about twice those published under a subscription model (19 [16-31] vs. 9 [8-15]). In ICCN, 9 of the 10 analysed papers were published open access compared with 3 in NICC and ACC and 2 in AJCC.

The identified themes in this paper underscore the dynamic nature of the field of critical care nursing and the ongoing efforts to address key challenges in critical care nursing practice and health care delivery. Publishing open-access articles on trending topics and collaborating internationally seem to be effective approaches for gaining more citations.

Understanding these prevalent themes has significant implications for guiding research priorities, informing clinical practice, shaping policy and improving patient outcomes. Academic journals need to encourage increasing the representation of researchers from the Global South in both journals' editorial boards and submissions to the journals.