Highly cited works in radiology: the top 100 cited articles in radiologic journals.
OBJECTIVE
The number of citations a publication receives can be used to show its impact on a field of study. It may indicate the educational interest in a given population or underline a perceived or real educational gap. This article identifies and characterizes the 100 top cited publications in radiologic journals as of May 2013.


METHODS
All clinical radiologic journals listed by Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports in 2011 were identified. A total of 46 journals were identified, and all articles published within these journals were analyzed for citation counts. The top 100 highly cited articles were recorded.


RESULTS
The most frequently cited radiologic articles appeared in 9 of the 46 journals. These included 59 articles in Radiology, 17 in Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 9 in the American Journal of Roentgenology, 5 in the British Journal of Radiology, 4 in Investigative Radiology, 2 in American Journal of Neuroradiology, 2 in European Radiology, 2 in Radiologic Clinics of North America, 1 in the Seminars in Nuclear Medicine, and 1 in Pediatric Radiology. The citation values ranged from 422 to 7506 with a mean of 751. Publication dates ranged from 1967 to 2006 with the 5-year period between 1986 and 1990 accounting for the largest percentage of articles. The most frequently studied radiologic modality was magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; 28 articles), followed by vascular/interventional (19 articles) and nuclear medicine (13 articles). The central nervous system was the most frequently studied organ system (22 articles), followed by mixed organ systems (14 articles) and liver (12 articles).


CONCLUSIONS
The top cited articles in radiologic journals span a wide range of imaging modalities, subspecialties, and organ systems. Topics that occurred frequently in the top 100 cited articles included contrast and radiopharmaceutical characterization, MRI of motion, percutaneous radiofrequency ablation in the liver and percutaneous vertebroplasty. We present a methodology that uses citation analysis to identify and characterize these articles. Its use may aid radiologists, academic organization, and editorial staff in determining areas of imaging interest or perceived educational gap. It also highlights the importance of including classic articles in current imaging education.
College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN.
Matthew
M
Pagni
College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN; Department of Neurosurgery, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN.
Nickalus R
NR
Khan
Department of Radiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN; Department of Radiology, Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 848 Adams Ave - G216, Memphis, TN 38103; Department of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN; Department of Obstetrics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN.
Harris L
HL
Cohen
Department of Neurosurgery, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN; Department of Radiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN; Department of Radiology, Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 848 Adams Ave - G216, Memphis, TN 38103; Department of Ophthalmology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN. Electronic address: achoudhri@uthsc.edu.
Asim F
AF
Choudhri
D015706:Bibliometrics; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011871:Radiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
Bibliometrics; Scopus; Web of Science; citation; citation analysis; impact factor; radiology; scientometrics