title: Top 20 cited Spine Journal articles, 1990-2009.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the most cited articles and most published authors in Spine Journal from 1990-2009.
  
  
  METHODS
  Spine Journal, established in 1976, is affiliated with 12 spine societies and a leader in spine research articles. Citation analysis is a method to determine the impact of a journal and its articles on academia and clinical practice. Using the Institute for Scientific Information Web of Knowledge, we determined the most cited articles in Spine Journal between1990-2009. The characteristics and type of article were recorded. Next, we evaluated the most published authors during the same time period and calculated the number of citations for each author. The number of first authorships for each of these authors was also determined along with the number of citations for those articles.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The top 20 cited articles range from 491 to 267 total citations. The top 20 published authors had between 41 and 135 articles. Seventeen of the top 20 articles were clinical studies. The range of citations per lead authorship ratio was 36 to 724 with one author having no lead authorships. Low back pain was the most common theme encountered in the top cited articles. The first-ranked article was not a spine-specific topic rather it was regarding general physical and mental health status survey update review.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Spine Journal and its authors have a clear impact on the scientific community based on this review of the top articles and authors in the last 20 years.
authors.affiliation: Hossein K Elgafy, Jacob D Miller, Sohaib Hashmi, Steven Ericksen, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, OH 43614, United States.
authors.forename: Hossein K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Elgafy
authors.affiliation: Hossein K Elgafy, Jacob D Miller, Sohaib Hashmi, Steven Ericksen, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, OH 43614, United States.
authors.forename: Jacob D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Hossein K Elgafy, Jacob D Miller, Sohaib Hashmi, Steven Ericksen, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, OH 43614, United States.
authors.forename: Sohaib
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hashmi
authors.affiliation: Hossein K Elgafy, Jacob D Miller, Sohaib Hashmi, Steven Ericksen, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, OH 43614, United States.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ericksen
keywords: Back pain; Citation analysis; Spine Journal