The difference between highly and poorly cited medical articles in the journal Lancet

Ronald N. Kostoff ()
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Ronald N. Kostoff: Office of Naval Research

Scientometrics, 2007, vol. 72, issue 3, No 9, 513-520

Abstract: Abstract Characteristics of highly and poorly cited research articles (with Abstracts) published in The Lancet over a three-year period were examined. These characteristics included numerical (numbers of authors, references, citations, Abstract words, journal pages), organizational (first author country, institution type, institution name), and medical (medical condition, study approach, study type, sample size, study outcome). Compared to the least cited articles, the most cited have three to five times the median number of authors per article, fifty to six hundred percent greater median number of references per article, 110 to 490 times the median number of citations per article, 2.5 to almost seven times the median number of Abstract words per article, and 2.5 to 3.5 times the median number of pages per article. The most cited articles’ medical themes emphasize breast cancer, diabetes, coronary circulation, and HIV immune system problems, focusing on large-scale clinical trials of drugs. The least cited articles’ themes essentially do not address the above medical issues, especially from a clinical trials perspective, cover a much broader range of topics, and have much more emphasis on social and reproductive health issues. Finally, for sample sizes of clinical trials specifically, those of the most cited articles ranged from a median of about 1500 to 2500, whereas those of the least cited articles ranged from 30 to 40.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1573-7

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