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ORIGINAL ARTICLE • Dental Press J. Orthod. 29 (2) • 2024 • https://doi.org/10.1590/2177-6709.29.2.e242401.oar   copy

A bibliometric analysis of the 100 top-cited systematic review and meta-analysis in Orthodontics

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

Objective:

This bibliometric study aimed to analyze the citation metrics, journal and author characteristics, and subject domains of the 100 top-cited Systematic Reviews (SR) and Meta-Analysis (MA) in orthodontics.

Material and Methods:

An electronic database search was conducted for SR and MA in the Web of Science on 16th July 2023, without language and time restrictions. Of the 802 hits returned, the 100 top-cited orthodontic articles were shortlisted. They were analyzed for citation metrics, journal characteristics (journal, year of publication, impact factor-IF), author and affiliation characteristics (number, primary and corresponding author’s affiliation, and country), study domain, and keywords.

Results:

These articles were published from 1996 to 2021 in 20 journals, with an impact factor of 1.9 to 10.5, by 351 researchers affiliated with 104 universities. Their citations ranged from 45 to 344, and 34 poised to be classified as classic (≥ 100 citations). The maximum number of articles was published in the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (n=38), the European Journal of Orthodontics (n=18), and the Angle Orthodontist (n=8). The authors for individual papers ranged from 1 to 10, with 5 being the most common (n=58). Europe had the highest contribution regarding the number of corresponding authors, institutions, and citations. Bone anchorage and orthodontic tooth movement/Biomechanics were the most frequently researched domains (n=11 each). The most common keyword used was Orthodontics (n=19), followed by Systematic Review (n=16) and Meta-analysis (n=9).

Conclusion:

In general, the top cited SR and MA were published in high-impact orthodontic journals, were multi-authored, and reflected the collaborative work from different universities.

Keywords:
Bibliometrics; Citation analysis; Orthodontics; Systematic reviews; Meta-analysis

RESUMO

Objetivo:

Este estudo bibliométrico teve como objetivo analisar as métricas de citação, as características dos periódicos e dos autores, e os domínios temáticos das 100 Revisões Sistemáticas (RS) e Meta-Análises (MA) mais citadas em Ortodontia.

Material e Métodos:

Uma pesquisa em banco de dados eletrônico foi realizada para RS e MA na Web of Science no dia 16 de julho de 2023, sem restrições de idioma e data de publicação. Dos 802 resultados encontrados, foram selecionados os 100 artigos ortodônticos mais citados. Eles foram analisados quanto a métricas de citação, características do periódico (revista, ano de publicação e fator de impacto [FI]), características dos autores e afiliação (quantidade, afiliação dos autores principal e correspondente, e país), domínio do estudo e palavras-chave.

Resultados:

Esses artigos foram publicados entre 1996 e 2021 em 20 periódicos com fator de impacto de 1,9 a 10,5, por 351 pesquisadores afiliados a 104 universidades. Suas citações variaram de 45 a 344, com 34 prestes a serem classificados como clássicos (≥ 100 citações). A maior quantidade de artigos foi publicada na American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (n=38), na European Journal of Orthodontics (n=18), e no The Angle Orthodontist (n=8). A quantidade de autores por artigo variou de 1 a 10, sendo 5 o mais frequente (n=58). A Europa teve a maior contribuição em relação ao número de autores correspondentes, instituições e citações. Ancoragem óssea e movimentação dentária ortodôntica/Biomecânica foram os domínios mais abordados (n=11 cada). A palavra-chave mais utilizada foi Ortodontia (n=19), seguida de Revisão Sistemática (n=16) e Meta-análise (n=9).

Conclusão:

No geral, as RS e MA mais citadas foram publicadas em revistas ortodônticas de alto impacto, eram de autoria múltipla e refletiam o trabalho colaborativo de diferentes universidades.

Palavras-chave:
Bibliometria; Análise de citações; Ortodontia; Revisões sistemáticas; Meta-análise

INTRODUCTION

Bibliometric analysis is a scientific computer-assisted review methodology that identifies core research characteristics by covering all the publications related to a given topic or field. It typically measures research outputs like publication counts, citation counts, and measurements derived from these data.11 Cooper ID. Bibliometrics basics. J Med Libr Assoc. 2015 Oct;103(4):217-18. This information is a supporting tool for decision-making in setting research priorities, tracking the evolution of science and technology, funding allocation, and rewarding scientific excellence.22 Mejia C, Wu M, Zhang Y, Kajikawa Y. Exploring topics in bibliometric research through citation networks and semantic analysis. Front Res Metr Anal. 2021 Sep 24;6:742311. One of the standard bibliometric methods is citation analysis, which quantifies the number and relationship of references an article receives over time.33 Han J, Kang HJ, Kim M, Kwon GH. Mapping the intellectual structure of research on surgery with mixed reality: Bibliometric network analysis (2000-2019). J Biomed Inform. 2020 Sep;109:103516. It also highlights the scientific progress and quality of research done throughout the years and the focus areas of active research. Despite being a time-dependent measure, it reflects the impact and progress of the research over the years, and is a widely used scientific quality indicator.44 Adobes Martin M, Lipani E, Alvarado Lorenzo A, Aiuto R, Garcovich D. Trending topics in orthodontics research during the last three decades: A longitudinal bibliometric study on the top-cited articles. Orthod Craniofac Res. 2020 Nov;23(4):462-470.

With evidence-based clinical decision-making gaining momentum in all fields of Medicine and Dentistry, including Orthodontics, there is an increased focus on publications providing higher evidence.55 Uman LS. Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2011 Feb;20(1):57-9. The widespread use of computer-based information systems and online access to publications have also enhanced the impact and utility of this evidence. According to the evidence-based Medicine pyramid, systematic review (SR) and meta-analysis (MA) provide the highest level of evidence, as they synthesize reliable information with varying levels of evidence from already available literature.66 Papadopoulos MA. Meta-analyses and orthodontic evidence-based clinical practice in the 21st century. Open Dent J. 2010 Jul;4:92-123.SRs are designed to answer specific questions by employing a predetermined, precise methodology to comprehensively search for, select, assess and analyze original research studies. SRs may or may not include formal MAs. MA is the statistical pooling of the results of studies that are part of a systematic review, and presents a significant advantage to SRs, by increasing the overall sample size by combining data from individual studies, thus increasing the statistical power and precision to assess the treatment effects.77 Ahn E, Kang H. Introduction to systematic review and meta-analysis. Korean J Anesthesiol. 2018 Apr;71(2):103-12.

Citation analyses in Orthodontics have often focused on the time frame of publication or emerging domains within the field, such as Lingual Orthodontics,88 Tarazona-Alvarez B, Lucas-Dominguez R, Paredes-Gallardo V, Alonso-Arroyo A, Vidal-Infer A. A bibliometric analysis of scientific production in the field of lingual orthodontics. Head Face Med. 2019 Sep;15(1):23. Temporary anchorage devices (TAD),99 Ferrillo M, Nucci L, Gallo V, Bruni A, Montrella R, Fortunato L, et al. Temporary anchorage devices in orthodontics: a bibliometric analysis of the 50 most-cited articles from 2012 to 2022. Angle Orthod. 2023 Sep;93(5):591-602. etc. However, citation analysis of level-one evidence constituting SRs and MAs has not been attempted. Further, information on the bibliometric characteristics of impactful, high-quality publications will help understand the trends in synthetic research. Hence, the current study was designed to identify and analyze the bibliometric characteristics of the 100 most-cited SRs and MAs in Orthodontics.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The Clarivate Analytics Web of Science (WoS) database has been widely used, being more accessible to historical literature. Therefore, a database search was performed in the WoS to track the top-cited SRs and MAs in Orthodontics. The search term in the topic field was entered as “(Systematic review OR Meta-analysis) AND Orthodont*” without any time and language restrictions. The systematic search was conducted on 16th July 2023. The results were sorted based on the number of citations, and the first 200 articles were selected and exported to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA), to evaluate their eligibility for inclusion in this study.

The preliminary screening of articles to assess their relevance to the study was performed independently by two authors (PV and US) based on the information from the title, abstract and the complete article, when required. Publications not directly related to orthodontics and those on craniofacial syndromes, cleft lip and palate were excluded. Any discordance related to the inclusion of a particular article was resolved by consensus discussion between all the authors. The hundred top-cited articles in the qualified list were included for data extraction and further analysis.

The information retrieved included the total number of citations, the journal of publication, year of publication, number of authors, details of the primary and corresponding authors (affiliation, position, and country), funding organization, the journal’s impact factor (IF), Digital Object Identifier (DOI), study type and domain, and keywords.88 Tarazona-Alvarez B, Lucas-Dominguez R, Paredes-Gallardo V, Alonso-Arroyo A, Vidal-Infer A. A bibliometric analysis of scientific production in the field of lingual orthodontics. Head Face Med. 2019 Sep;15(1):23. Manual data extraction and normalization were performed to unify terms and remove typographical errors. Normalization was carried out for the “Author,” “Organization,” and “Country of Origin” fields.1010 Tarazona B, Lucas-Dominguez R, Paredes-Gallardo V, Alonso-Arroyo A, Vidal-Infer A. The 100 most-cited articles in orthodontics: A bibliometric study. Angle Orthod. 2018 Nov;88(6):785-96. In cases of multiple and different entries for the same author, their affiliations were verified and confirmed through an internet search. Only universities and higher research centers were noted for the study’s affiliation field. Information regarding departments, private practice, and smaller centers was not considered.88 Tarazona-Alvarez B, Lucas-Dominguez R, Paredes-Gallardo V, Alonso-Arroyo A, Vidal-Infer A. A bibliometric analysis of scientific production in the field of lingual orthodontics. Head Face Med. 2019 Sep;15(1):23.,1010 Tarazona B, Lucas-Dominguez R, Paredes-Gallardo V, Alonso-Arroyo A, Vidal-Infer A. The 100 most-cited articles in orthodontics: A bibliometric study. Angle Orthod. 2018 Nov;88(6):785-96. The orthodontic study domains were classified as proposed by Aura-Tormos et al.1111 Aura-Tormos JI, García-Sanz V, Estrela F, Bellot-Arcís C, Paredes-Gallardo V. Current trends in orthodontic journals listed in Journal Citation Reports. A bibliometric study. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop. 2019 Nov;156(5):663-674.e1.

Two investigators (MS and BN) independently collected and tabulated the data. After completion, they were compared for concurrence. A periodic team review was conducted to settle all discrepancies, and the consensus data thus obtained was treated as final. The data analysis and pictorial representation of data were developed using Microsoft Office 365 (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA).

RESULTS

An initial keyword search yielded 802 articles. The top 200 were exported for scrutiny in descending order of the number of citations. Twenty-five articles not fulfilling the eligibility criteria regarding subject matter were eliminated during screening, leaving 175 for further consideration. From the final list, the 100 most-cited articles were included for analysis (Table 1). The systematic selection of articles is depicted in the flow chart (Fig 1).

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Table 1:
Top 100 cited Systematic Review and Meta-analysis in Orthodontics.

Figure 1:
Flow chart depicting the inclusion of articles.

CITATION METRICS

The citation counts of the top 100 cited articles ranged from 45 to 344. These articles were published from 1996 to 2021 (Fig 2), with spikes in 2014 (n=15) and 2016 (n=13). Of these, 59 were SR, 6 were MA, and 35 were SR with MA. Thirty-four articles were cited more than 100 times and considered classic articles. The article “Root resorption associated with orthodontic tooth movement: A systematic review”, from American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (AJODO), was the most cited publication.

Figure 2:
Top 100 cited systematic review and meta-analysis in orthodontics over the years.

JOURNAL CHARACTERISTICS

The top-cited articles were published in 20 different scientific journals (Table 2). Among these, were six journals specialized in Orthodontics, which collectively published more than three-fourths of the publications (n=78) of the entire lot. The maximum number of articles (n=38) were published in AJODO (IF=3), with a total citation of 3,811. Of these, 23 were SR, 4 were MA, and the rest were SR with MA. There were notable publications in the AJODO in 2013 (n=5). Meanwhile, the Angle Orthodontist had the highest citation/article ratio (131.13). The least cited article among the top 100 was published in the Journal of Dental Education (IF=2.3). The IF of the journals ranged from 1.9 to 10.5 (3.4 ± 1.4, median = 3).

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Table 2:
The 20 journals in which the top 100 cited articles published.

AUTHOR CHARACTERISTICS

The top 100 cited articles were co-authored by 351 authors from different countries and universities. Publications with more than five authors were the most common (n=58) (Supplementary table). Sixty-two authors have contributed to two or more articles (Table 3). The number of authors for individual papers ranged from 1 to 10. Kuijpers-Jagtman AM, from Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands), had the highest number of individual citations (n=660), from four research papers.

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Table 3:
The top-cited authors with two or more publications.

Individually, Papageorgiou SN and Flores-Mir C, affiliated with the University of Bonn (Germany) and the University of Alberta (Canada), respectively, co-authored a maximum of seven papers. In addition, Papageorgiou SN contributed to a maximum number of four articles as a first author. Similarly, Fleming PS, affiliated with the Queen Mary University of London (United Kingdom), had a maximum of four articles as the corresponding author.

AUTHOR AFFILIATION AND COUNTRY

Among 104 universities associated with these top-cited articles, 33 were affiliated with two or more articles (Table 4). The highest number of individual citations (n=929) was by Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands). The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), the University of Bern (Switzerland), and the University of Alberta (Canada) contributed with eight articles each.

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Table 4:
The top 33 universities with two or more articles.

Based on the article’s corresponding author’s origin, these publications came from 19 countries. Figure 3 (World map, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA) depicts the distribution of corresponding authors and citation analysis. The maximum number of citations (n=1372) contributed by corresponding authors belonged to Italy, from 14 research articles. However, the United Kingdom published the maximum number of articles (n=15) with a citation of 1179. In addition, 62 corresponding authors with two or more of the top cited articles were from 12 countries from the European continent.

Figure 3:
The country-wise distribution of corresponding authors and citations among the top 100 cited articles.

STUDY DOMAIN

There was a wide distribution of articles based on research domains in Orthodontics. A total of 21 domains were discussed among the top 100 cited systematic reviews and meta-analyses (Table 5). The most focused domains were orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) / biomechanics (11 articles, 1150 citations) and bone anchorage (11 articles, 969 citations). This was followed by digital Orthodontics, Class II management with functional appliances, and Aligners.

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Table 5:
Distribution of articles, based on research domains.

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Table 6:
Most commonly used Keywords in the top 100 cited articles.

The top five cited articles were mostly related to root resorption (n=344), clear aligners (n=277), OTM (n=257), digital study models (n=219), and functional appliances (n=198). With the recent advances in digital Orthodontics, aligners, and fixed functional appliances, the volume of research with citations has increased significantly. Domains like dental trauma, vertical discrepancy, and bonding and bracket removal presented least number of articles with citations. Citation analysis of journals regarding the domain bone anchorage/mini-implant (n=9) showed that these articles were most commonly published in AJODO from 2007 to 2017 (Supplementary Table Supplementary Table: Descriptive data of top 100 cited systematic review and meta-analysis in orthodontics. ).

KEYWORDS

There were 212 unique keywords provided by 40 research papers in the lot. The most frequent were Orthodontics (n=19), Systematic review (n=16) and Meta-analysis (n=9). Details of keywords used thrice or more are presented in Table 6.

DISCUSSION

Citation metric is a popular quantitative measure of the impact of a research article in a particular domain. Bibliometric studies analyzing various aspects of this metric and its associated factors have been a common practice in many specialties of Dentistry. In Orthodontics, scientific mapping has been conducted in many areas, like Lingual Orthodontics,88 Tarazona-Alvarez B, Lucas-Dominguez R, Paredes-Gallardo V, Alonso-Arroyo A, Vidal-Infer A. A bibliometric analysis of scientific production in the field of lingual orthodontics. Head Face Med. 2019 Sep;15(1):23. TAD,99 Ferrillo M, Nucci L, Gallo V, Bruni A, Montrella R, Fortunato L, et al. Temporary anchorage devices in orthodontics: a bibliometric analysis of the 50 most-cited articles from 2012 to 2022. Angle Orthod. 2023 Sep;93(5):591-602. Orthognathic Surgery,1212 Grillo R. Orthognathic surgery: a bibliometric analysis of the top 100 cited articles. J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2021 Nov;79(11):2339-49. and Artificial Intelligence.1313 Wong KF, Lam XY, Jiang Y, Yeung AWK, Lin Y. Artificial intelligence in orthodontics and orthognathic surgery: a bibliometric analysis of the 100 most-cited articles. Head Face Med. 2023 Aug;19(1):38. However, bibliometric studies on level one evidence articles are unavailable; to the best of our knowledge, this is the first in this regard.

Overall, the articles covered 21 subject domains. Orthodontic tooth movement/Biomechanics topped the list, with 1150 citations from 11 articles. This finding is not surprising, as this is a fundamental domain for the practice of Orthodontics. Three of the top five domains were related to recent evolutions in Orthodontics: Bone anchorage, Digital orthodontics, and Aligners. As recent advances in any field exhibit a higher knowledge gap, evoke more interest, and instigate more research and publications, it is natural to note increasing citations of seminal publications in the domain.1414 Memon AR, Chen S, To QG, Vandelanotte C. Vigorously cited: a bibliometric analysis of the 100 most cited sedentary behaviour articles. JASSB. 2023;2(1):13. Among individual articles, the systematic review on root resorption by Weltman et al.,1515 Weltman B, Vig KW, Fields HW, Shanker S, Kaizar EE. Root resorption associated with orthodontic tooth movement: a systematic review. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop. 2010 Apr;137(4):462-76. published by AJODO in 2010, topped the number of citations (n=344). This article reported high-quality evidence of risk factors associated with root resorption associated with fixed orthodontics. It should also be noted that nearly one-fourth of the articles were published in journals not exclusive to the specialty of Orthodontics, highlighting the need to go beyond specialty journals while searching for relevant content.

The scientific literature on Orthodontics is vast, and articles reaching over 100 citations are considered highly impactful and classic. It has been reported that less than 10% of the research papers fulfill the status of classic articles.1616 Andersen J, Belmont J, Cho CT. Journal impact factor in the era of expanding literature. J Microbiol Immunol Infect. 2006 Dec;39(6):436-43. In larger research fields, articles with more than 400 citations are considered classics. However, the classic citation varies for each field.1717 Lam XY, Ren J, Yeung AWK, Lin Y. The 100 most-cited randomised controlled trials in orthodontics: a bibliometric study. Int Dent J. 2024 Jan:S0020-6539(23)00986-3. In the present study, 34 articles had more than 100 citations and could be categorized as classic. This higher proportion is not surprising, since many of these publications pertain to the newer advances in the field, increasing in research and publications, and the tendency for authors to cite preferentially articles with higher levels of evidence.1818 Jannot AS, Agoritsas T, Gayet-Ageron A, Perneger TV. Citation bias favoring statistically significant studies was present in medical research. J Clin Epidemiol. 2013 Mar;66(3):296-301.

Time since publication is an essential factor that impacts the citation metrics of an article.88 Tarazona-Alvarez B, Lucas-Dominguez R, Paredes-Gallardo V, Alonso-Arroyo A, Vidal-Infer A. A bibliometric analysis of scientific production in the field of lingual orthodontics. Head Face Med. 2019 Sep;15(1):23. Older articles receive more citations than recently published ones, due to the advantage of time and the snowball effect of subsequent related articles referring to older and primary articles.88 Tarazona-Alvarez B, Lucas-Dominguez R, Paredes-Gallardo V, Alonso-Arroyo A, Vidal-Infer A. A bibliometric analysis of scientific production in the field of lingual orthodontics. Head Face Med. 2019 Sep;15(1):23.,1919 Ahmad P, Dummer PMH, Chaudhry A, Rashid U, Saif S, Asif JA. A bibliometric study of the top 100 most-cited randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in endodontic journals. Int Endod J. 2019 Sep;52(9):1297-316. Correlating with other studies,1919 Ahmad P, Dummer PMH, Chaudhry A, Rashid U, Saif S, Asif JA. A bibliometric study of the top 100 most-cited randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in endodontic journals. Int Endod J. 2019 Sep;52(9):1297-316.,2020 Alkhutari AS, Al-Moraissi EA, Galvão EL, Christidis N, Falci SGM. Top 100 cited systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the major journals of oral and maxillofacial surgery: a bibliometric analysis. Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2022 Sep;26(3):343-56. more cited articles were published after 2010, highlighting the scientific expansion in Orthodontics focused on clinical trials and evidence-based practice. It is important to note that in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (IF: 8.4), an internationally recognized evidence-based Medicine journal, a handful of articles (n=5) were published. This might be due to the scarcity of clinical trials in Orthodontics to conduct well-designed MAs.

The IF of a journal is another factor influencing the citation metrics, and accounts for nearly 59% of the citation discrepancy.2121 Royle P, Kandala NB, Barnard K, Waugh N. Bibliometrics of systematic reviews: analysis of citation rates and journal impact factors. Syst Rev. 2013;2:74. In this study, top-cited SR and MA citations ranged between 45 and 344, and were published in high impact orthodontic journals. The IF of the journals included in this study ranged from 1.9 to 10.5, with a median of 3. The relationship between IF and the number of citations is bidirectional and mutually beneficial. High IF indicates high repute, visibility, and readership for the journal among peers.2222 Hardman TC, Krentz AJ, Wierzbicki AS. Ten tips for promoting your research. Cardiovasc Endocrinol Metab. 2020 Feb;9(1):30-5. This motivates the researchers to select these journals to publish their high-quality research. By virtue of quality, these publications inherently have a high potential for citations and boost the IF further over time.

Countries with better economic rankings are likely to publish the most impactful papers, which may be related to the availability and allocation of resources necessary to undertake such studies.2323 Rodríguez-Navarro A, Brito R. The link between countries' economic and scientific wealth has a complex dependence on technological activity and research policy. Scientometrics. 2022 May;127(5):2871-96. In agreement, 21 out of 100 articles were funded in this study, most of which belonged to developed nations (Supplementary Table Supplementary Table: Descriptive data of top 100 cited systematic review and meta-analysis in orthodontics. ). This study showed that 65 of 100 articles were from the top 10 countries in world economic rankings, based on GDP in 2023.2424 Knight J, Parikh S, Ashkan K. Neurosurgical academic impact rankings by h5-Index: a global perspective. World Neurosurg. 2023 May;173:e55-e61. Concordant with similar studies,44 Adobes Martin M, Lipani E, Alvarado Lorenzo A, Aiuto R, Garcovich D. Trending topics in orthodontics research during the last three decades: A longitudinal bibliometric study on the top-cited articles. Orthod Craniofac Res. 2020 Nov;23(4):462-470.,1010 Tarazona B, Lucas-Dominguez R, Paredes-Gallardo V, Alonso-Arroyo A, Vidal-Infer A. The 100 most-cited articles in orthodontics: A bibliometric study. Angle Orthod. 2018 Nov;88(6):785-96.,2525 Hui J, Han Z, Geng G, Yan W, Shao P. The 100 top-cited articles in orthodontics from 1975 to 2011. Angle Orthod. 2013 May;83(3):491-9. the majority of corresponding authors were from Europe (n=62), with the United Kingdom (n=15) and Italy (n=14) being top contributors.

Another noteworthy observation was the number of authors involved with these publications. These top 100 articles were co-authored by 351 authors affiliated with 104 universities. The number of authors per paper varied from 1 to 10, with more than five authors in 58 publications. Further, 53 of 100 were international collaboration or multi-university research papers. These reiterate that collaboration is vital in elevating the impact of articles, and collaborative papers are expected to be more cited.2626 Barão VAR, Shyamsunder N, Yuan JCC, Lee DJ, Assunção WG, Sukotjo C. Authorship, collaboration, and funding trends in implantology literature: analysis of five journals from 2005 to 2009. Implant Dent. 2011 Feb;20(1):68-75.

Keywords of scientific literature define the research field or topic, and enhance the visibility among peer researchers.2727 Chang YW, Huang MH, Lin CW. Evolution of research subjects in library and information science based on keyword, bibliographical coupling, and co-citation analyses. Scientometrics. 2015 Dec;105(3):2071-87. It is also essential to be in words rather than phrases or sentences. Therefore, it serves as a code for locating the required article.1717 Lam XY, Ren J, Yeung AWK, Lin Y. The 100 most-cited randomised controlled trials in orthodontics: a bibliometric study. Int Dent J. 2024 Jan:S0020-6539(23)00986-3.,2727 Chang YW, Huang MH, Lin CW. Evolution of research subjects in library and information science based on keyword, bibliographical coupling, and co-citation analyses. Scientometrics. 2015 Dec;105(3):2071-87. It is no surprise that the most often used term was Orthodontics, followed by Systematic Review and Meta-analysis, given that this study focuses on SR and MA of orthodontic literature. Interestingly, considering that the maximum number of articles were based on bone anchorage and biomechanics, very few keywords were related to it. Clear Aligners (n=6) and Invisalign (n=4), related to the Aligner domain, were most commonly used. Most journals require keywords while submitting the manuscript, but it was unusual that many articles were without keywords. Some of the high-impact journals in the field of Orthodontics, like AJODO and the European Journal of Orthodontics (EJO), did not contain keywords (Supplementary Table Supplementary Table: Descriptive data of top 100 cited systematic review and meta-analysis in orthodontics. ). On the other hand, AJODO and EJO recorded the highest citation and maximum number of articles (n=56) among the top 100 cited articles.

LIMITATIONS

Using only Clarivate Analytics Web of Science’s (WoS) Science Citation Index (SCI) to identify the top-cited articles is a limitation. WoS gathers information from academic journals, books, book series, reports, and conferences. It provides access to current information and historical data from 1900 onwards for more than 8850 of the world’s most renowned academic journals in 150 scientific fields. Other options include the Scopus database, which tracks citations from 1996, which is a downside for considering citation analysis. Similarly, Google Scholar includes books, conference papers, theses, dissertations, unpublished data, and reports, influencing the citation count. However, WoS remains the most significant and widely utilized source database for bibliometric and citation analysis across all academic disciplines.2828 Bakkalbasi N, Bauer K, Glover J, Wang L. Three options for citation tracking: Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science. Biomed Digit Libr. 2006;3:7.

29 Falagas ME, Pitsouni EI, Malietzis GA, Pappas G. Comparison of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar: strengths and weaknesses. FASEB J. 2008 Feb;22(2):338-42.-3030 Pranckute R. Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus: the titans of bibliographic information in today's academic world. Publications. 2021 Mar;9(1):12. The current study may have missed articles published in non-indexed and non-English journals. The number of citations decides the impact and quality of an article; unfortunately, it could be time-dependent. Another shortcoming is the potential source of error in such bibliometric studies resulting from ‘self-citation’3131 Chorus C, Waltman L. A large-scale analysis of impact factor biased journal self-citations. PLoS One. 2016 Aug;11(8):e0161021. and ‘journal bias’. The former indicates the authors’ tendency to cite their publications, to improve their credentials and journal IF. Journal bias refers to the inclination of the authors to cite papers from the same journal targeted to publish their research.3232 Ahmad P, Della Bella E, Stoddart MJ. Applications of bone morphogenetic proteins in dentistry: a bibliometric analysis. Biomed Res Int. 2020;2020:5971268.,3333 Hirshman BR, Jones LA, Tang JA, Proudfoot JA, Carley KM, Carter BS, et al. "Journal Bias" in peer-reviewed literature: an analysis of the surgical high-grade glioma literature. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2016 Nov;87(11):1248-50. Finally, the author’s actual affiliations were only considered if multiple institutions were present.

CONCLUSION

This descriptive bibliometrics analysis provides scientific evidence mapping of orthodontic literature. The 100 top-cited SR and MA in orthodontics were published from 1996 to 2021, with high-impact orthodontic journals (AJODO, EJO, and Angle Orthodontist) contributing the most. Thirty-four of them had already grossed a hundred citations or more. OTM/biomechanics and Bone anchorage were the trending domains. The articles were often multi-authored and involved collaborative work from different universities. Europe was the most productive in terms of authors and institutions. The findings may be of interest and useful to all prospective authors and synthetic research studies in Orthodontics.

REFERENCES

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Supplementary Table: Descriptive data of top 100 cited systematic review and meta-analysis in orthodontics.

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    10 June 2024
  • Date of issue
    2024

History

  • Received
    01 Jan 2024
  • Accepted
    13 Mar 2024
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