A bibliometric analysis of pediatric liver transplantation publications

Abstract

Citation counts can identify landmark papers. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the top-cited articles in the pediatric liver transplantation literature. A search strategy for the Scopus^® database was designed for pediatric liver transplantation publications from 1945 to 2014. The 50 top-cited articles were analyzed. Author co-citation analysis was performed using VOSviewer techniques. There were 2896 articles published between 1969 and 2015. The mean citation count of the top 50 cited articles was 166 (range 95-635). There were three case reports in this top-cited list. There were 15 collaborations in this top-cited list with nine being international. The top-cited publications originated in 12 countries, with the USA and the UK contributing 31 and seven articles, respectively. There were 14 authors with four or more publications in this list. There was a single author with nine publications in the top-cited list. These top-cited papers were found in 16 journals, with three journals collectively publishing over 50% of these publications. Pediatric liver transplantation research is an evolving entity. Surgical techniques and case reports are influential articles. Collaborations at a national and international level produce highly cited articles, which are found in influential journals.

Keywords: bibliometrics; citation analysis; liver transplantation; pediatric.