Assessing the impact of publications: A bibliometric analysis of the top-cited articles from The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery

Objective: After 90 years, The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (JTCVS) remains one of the most influential and widely read journals in our specialty. This study analyzes the characteristics of its top-cited articles over the past 6 decades. Methods: Using Elsevier's Scopus database, we identified all papers published in JTCVS since 1959. After exclusion of expert consensus guidelines, articles were grouped by decade and ranked by the total number of citations. We included the field-weighted citation impact (FWCI) when available. We analyzed the characteristics of the 10 most cited documents overall and per decade. Results: The Journal published a total of 32,335 papers, of which 14,052 were published between 2010 and 2021. The order of the top-cited articles differs when ranked by citations versus FWCI. During the last 6 decades, the 10 most cited articles per decade have a mean number of 604 citations (range, 240-1670) and a mean FWCI of 13.1 (range, 4.3-24.7). There is no overlap in positions when articles are ranked by citations versus FWCI. The majority of the 60 top 10 cited articles over the past 6 decades were presented at a major meeting (n = 38, 63%), most commonly the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Topics in adult cardiac surgery and general thoracic surgery predominated among the most-cited papers, which originated most often from the United States followed by Japan, Canada, France, England, and Germany. Conclusions: JTCVS continues to provide a global platform to share impactful knowledge related to surgery for thoracic diseases. The use of citations to determine an article's impact has limitations and nontraditional metrics may prove to be an excellent complementary tool for more equitable evaluations.