title: The Impact of Melatonin in Research.
abstract: Citation indexes represent helpful tools for evaluating the impact of articles on research. The aim of this study was to obtain the top-100 ranking of the most cited papers on melatonin, a relevant neurohormone mainly involved in phase-adjusting the biological clock and with certain sleep-promoting capability. An article search was carried out on the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science platform. Numbers of citations, names of authors, journals and their 2014-impact factor, year of publication, and experimental designs of studies were recorded. The ranking of the 100-most cited articles on melatonin research (up to February 2016) revealed a citation range from 1623 to 310. Narrative reviews/expert opinions were the most frequently cited articles, while the main research topics were oxidative stress, sleep physiology, reproduction, circadian rhythms and melatonin receptors. This study represents the first detailed analysis of the 100 top-cited articles published in the field of melatonin research, showing its impact and relevance in the biomedical field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical, Surgery and Dental Sciences, Milan State University, Milan 20142, Italy. elena.varoni@unimi.it.
authors.forename: Elena Maria
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Varoni
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical, Surgery and Dental Sciences, Milan State University, Milan 20142, Italy. clelia.soru@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Clelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Soru
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical, Surgery and Dental Sciences, Milan State University, Milan 20142, Italy. pluchinoroberta@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pluchino
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical, Surgery and Dental Sciences, Milan State University, Milan 20142, Italy. chiara.intra@libero.it.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Intra
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Milan State University, Milan 20133, Italy. marcello.iriti@unimi.it.
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iriti
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D008550:Melatonin; D011642:Publications; D012106:Research
chemical_list: D008550:Melatonin
keywords: bibliometrics; biological clock; circadian rhythms; endocrinology; sleep