The top 100 articles in the radiology of trauma: a bibliometric analysis

The purpose of this study was to identify the 100 top-cited articles in the radiology of trauma, analyze the resulting database to understand factors resulting in highly cited works, and establish trends in trauma imaging. An initial database was created via a Web of Science (WOS) search of all scientific journals using the search terms “trauma” and either “radiology” or a diagnostic modality. Articles were ranked by citation count and screened by two attending radiologists plus a tiebreaker for appropriateness. The following information was collected from each article: WOS all database citations, year, journal, authors, department affiliation, study type and design, sample size, imaging modality, subspecialty, organ, and topic. Citations for the top 100 articles ranged from 82–252, and citations per year ranged from 2.6–37.2. A plurality of articles were published in the 1990s (n = 45) and 1980s (n = 31). Articles were published across 24 journals, most commonly Radiology (n = 31) and Journal of Trauma—Injury, Infection, and Critical Care (n = 28). Articles had an average of five authors and 35 % of first authors were affiliated with a department other than radiology. Forty-six articles had sample sizes of 100 or fewer. Computed tomography (CT) was the most common modality (n = 67), followed by magnetic resonance (MR; n = 22), and X-ray (XR; n = 11). Neuroradiology (n = 48) and abdominal radiology (n = 36) were the most common subspecialties. The 100 top-cited articles in the radiology of trauma are diverse. Subspecialty bibliometric analyses identify the most influential articles of a particular field, providing more implications to clinical radiologists, trainees, researchers, editors, and reviewers than radiology-wide lists.