The 100 top-cited articles published in emergency medicine journals: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Background: The number of citations that an article has received can reflect its importance in a specialty. The purpose of this study was to analyse the characteristics of top-cited articles published in 24 emergency medicine (EM) journals in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science (WoS). Method: WoS were used to identify the 100 top-cited articles published in EM journals. Basic information, including title, authors, country of origin (based on the first author), institution, publication year, journal name, language, document type, citation times and impact factor, was collected and analysed. Results: The 100 top-cited articles in EM journals, cited from 175 to 530 times, were published between 1979 and 2010, with most articles published between 2001 and 2005. All articles were written in English, and the United States contributed the most. The articles were distributed in seven different EM journals, led by Annals of Emergency Medicine with 45 articles. Resuscitation medicine was the most discussed topic. Conclusion: The bibliometric analysis on the 100 top-cited articles in EM journals from WoS demonstrates some significant points, which can have important implications for researchers in evaluating and orienting their research.