Common Topics of Publication and Levels of Evidence in the Current Hand Surgery Literature

Nicholas J. Lemme; Benjamin R. Johnston; Brandon C. Smith; Adnan Prsic; Edward Akelman; Brian C. Drolet

doi:10.1055/s-0038-1661423

Journal of Hand and Microsurgery, Table of Contents

J Hand Microsurg 2019; 11(01): 014-017
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1661423

Original Article

Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Private Ltd.

Common Topics of Publication and Levels of Evidence in the Current Hand Surgery Literature

Nicholas J. Lemme

¹Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States

²Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rhode Island Hospital and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States

,

Benjamin R. Johnston

¹Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States

,

Brandon C. Smith

¹Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States

,

Adnan Prsic

³Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States

,

Edward Akelman

²Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rhode Island Hospital and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States

,

Brian C. Drolet

⁴Department of Plastic Surgery, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

Background Scientific publications are the primary vehicle for the distribution of scientific findings, but there has been limited research on literature topic surveillance. We sought to identify and characterize the most commonly published topic domains in the hand surgery literature.

Methods We performed a 6-month hypothesis testing phase to identify the most frequently published topics in three hand surgery journals: Hand, The Journal of Hand Surgery (American), and The Journal of Hand Surgery (European). We reviewed all of the published articles in these journals from June 2010 to May 2015 to identify and characterize publications related to the three most common topic domains.

Results A total of 2,146 articles were published during the 5-year study period. The three most frequent topics domains included distal radius (DR) (11% of all articles), flexor tendon (FT) (9%), and carpal tunnel (CT) (7.5%). These subjects accounted for a total of 584 articles (27% of all publications) and 3,014 published pages during the study period. FT, CT, and DR publications were cited on average 2.3 times per year (2.5, 2.4, and 2.0, respectively).

Conclusion A small subset of topic domains makes up a significant proportion of scientific publications in hand surgery.

Keywords

publication frequency - level of evidence - publication bias - citation analysis

Full Text

References

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