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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
1   Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
2   Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rhode Island Hospital and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
,
Benjamin R. Johnston
1   Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
,
Brandon C. Smith
1   Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
,
Adnan Prsic
3   Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States
,
Edward Akelman
2   Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rhode Island Hospital and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
,
Brian C. Drolet
4   Department of Plastic Surgery, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Received: 23 March 2018

Accepted after revision: 15 May 2018

Publication Date:
09 August 2018 (online)

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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
 

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