Indian Journal of Surgery Medknow Publications on behalf of Association of Surgeons of India ISSN: 0972-2068 Vol. 68, Num. 1, 2006, pp. 11-16

Indian Journal of Surgery, Vol. 68, No. 1, January-February, 2006, pp. 11-16

Original Article

Indian surgical literature: The 'top 100' papers

Kaushik Robin

Department of Surgery, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh, India
Correspondence Address:Robin Kaushik, House No. 132, Sector 6, Panchkula - 134 109, Haryana, E-mail: robinkaushik@yahoo.com

Code Number: is06002

Abstract

Background: Citations are an important measure of the quality and content of scientific communications. Since no study regarding the most cited articles in surgical literature from India exists, this article aims to identify these top cited articles.
Materials and Methods: The 100 most frequently cited articles in surgery that originated from India were identified using the database of Scopus using a three pronged search.
Results: The top 100 most cited articles were tabulated in descending order as [Table - 1a , b, c]. The most cited article received 196 citations, whereas the 100th received 20. The majority of the articles were published in the decade 1991 to 2000, with 39 institutions authoring these 'landmark' articles.
Conclusions: When compared to other published 'citation classics', the Indian scenario has lot of scope for improvement. A definite conscious effort is required on the part of the Indian surgical fraternity to improve the citation value of our research.

Keywords: Citations, surgery, impact factor

Introduction

The number of times an article is cited is a measure of the quality of the article and its impact in its specific scientific field. As is obvious, the more number of times an article is cited, the more is its importance to a particular subject, indirectly reflecting the author (s)′ caliber and creativity. A large number of citations may also be taken to reflect the quality of work being done by a particular person, department, or Institute. In addition, journals also desire to publish manuscripts by such well cited authors, since they have a potential to be cited more, thereby, leading to an increase in the journal′s impact factor.

Previously there have been attempts by authors to identify and analyze the most cited papers in various specialities - Garfield, Dubin, Picknett and Davis and more recently, Fenton, Paladugu et al and, Baltussen. [1],[2],[3],[4],[5] Paladugu et al published the best cited articles in general surgical journals and concluded that such landmark articles ′ must have a long-standing effect on the way we practice - be it operative or nonoperative .′[3] However, there was no Literature from India on this list of 100 articles, where the 100th article had the lowest citation of 278. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no such analysis of the surgical Literature originating from India and this manuscript aims to do so in an attempt to identify our most cited articles.

Materials and Methods

The 100 most frequently cited articles in surgery that originated from India were identified using the database of Scopus in the months of January and February 2006. After using the initial keywords - "India′ and ′surgery′- a second search was further conducted using the authors thus identified. A third level of search was performed using the names of well known surgical faculty and Institutes of the country. Multi - Institutional articles that were published in collaboration with centres abroad were included in the list only if the first author was Indian or the study was conducted wholly in India - otherwise these were discarded.

Once the top 100 cited articles were identified, they were ranked and tabulated in descending order as per the number of citations received [Table - 1a , b, c ]. If two or more articles had the same number of citations, a higher rank / merit was given to the more recent publication. If articles with the same number of citations were published in the same year, the one published in a journal with a higher impact factor was considered to be of a higher rank.

The final list so tabulated was cross referenced through ′Google Scholar′ and the accuracy of these confirmed using ′Pubmed′and is presented in [Table - 1a , b, c]. The list was further analysed in terms of department of origin, Institute of origin [Table - 2] and the journals in which published [Table - 3].

Results

The oldest articles on the list were published in 1974 (three articles - numbers 38, 47 and 98) whereas the most recent one was published in 2003 (number 76). The majority of the articles were published in the decade 1991 to 2000. 12 of the articles were authored by a single author, 9 by two authors and the rest by three or more authors. The maximum citations received by a paper were 196, whereas the lowest on the list received 20 citations.

Overall, 39 institutions in India produced these articles, with 73 of the articles on the list arising from 12 institutes - All India Institute of Medical Sciences (17); Tata Memorial Hospital (15); Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Chandigarh (9); Christian Medical College Vellore (7); Escorts Heart Institute New Delhi, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Lucknow and Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Srinagar (4 each); Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences and Dr. V. M. Medical College Solapur, (3 each); and, Gobind Ballabh Pant Hospital New Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research Pondicherry and NIMHANS Bangalore (2 each).

Surprisingly, all of these 100 articles were published in International journals and not even a single Indian journal appeared on the list. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery and the British Journal of Surgery had published 7 each, closely followed by the Journal of Surgical Oncology (6) and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and, the World Journal of Surgery (5 publications each).

Discussion

To ′cite′ means to ′quote by way of example, authority or proof′.[6] In scientific literature, a ′citation′ is an acknowledgement provided by one author to another, by quoting his / her work in any scientific communication. As is evident, the number of times an article is cited by other authors reflects the scientific content and quality of the work and can be used as a measure of the impact of the cited article in its relevant field. Simply put, the more an article is cited, the more is the importance and relevance to its particular scientific field.

Although, previously, there have been attempts by various foreign authors to identify such top cited articles in various fields, there is no such analysis from India, to the best of my knowledge. This list that has originated from India is an effort to put the contributions of Indian surgeons in a proper perspective. However, before proceeding further, it is important to realize a few points. First of all, this article is meant to stimulate a debate rather than to denigrate the contributions of our peers and colleagues. There are many names - names of great teachers of surgery - that are missing on the list, but this cannot reflect on their contributions to the development of surgery in our country. Secondly, although I have tried to be as thorough as possible, I feel that there may be some names that may have been missed and I would like to convey my apologies for the same. Thirdly, one must realize that this is a dynamic list, changing every time someone cites a paper originating from India and the results today are very different from the ones one might access a few months later. However, having said this, even if this list is 90 % accurate, it provides a fair reflection of the surgical literature originating from India.

When compared to a list of "One Hundred Citation Classics in general Surgical Journals′published in 2002,[3] we are poor cousins, to say the least. There were no Indian articles on that list in which the top cited article had 1013 citations and the hundredth one, 278. In comparison, our top cited article had 196 citations and the last one, 20. Why is this? Today, in a day and age when Indian surgeons are accepted and felicitated for their surgical skills and contributions the world over, this seems to be a gross anomaly. Is this an area that we have neglected over the years, or do we simply believe that it is of no use quoting work that originates in our country? Only 4 articles had more than 100 citations and only another 9 more than 50. Is it only unawareness of the importance of citations that has lead to this?

Another glaring point is that no Indian journal has found a place in these ′top′ 100 articles. As an author, especially from an ′academic′ institution, it is important to have ′international′publications, but this alone cannot explain the absence of Indian journals from this list. Probably, the paucity of indexed Indian journals has contributed to this situation, but it need to be understood that the quality of a journal improves only when its content is of quality. May be this can also explain the fact that many famous names from the Indian scenario are missing on the list - maybe their data has been lost to posterity for lack of indexing and availability to the general population of surgeons. However, this situation seems to be improving, with more and more of our journals getting indexed and their content available through the internet and other electronic media.

It must be kept in mind that the impact factors of our journals and the standard of citations of our articles cannot be improved if we continue to let the situation drift like this. Our surgical fraternity has to make a conscious decision to publish their work in Indian journals and to quote well accepted and recent Indian literature in an attempt to lift the overall level of surgical research and publication from India. I leave it to the conscientious reader to decide on the future course of his / her publications and bibliography, but with the sincere request to include at least a few recent Indian authors and journals in them.

References

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