Papillary thyroid carcinoma: A bibliometric analysis of the top 100 cited articles

ObjectivesTo describe the current trends and key themes that are shaping the literature surrounding papillary thyroid carcinoma.MethodsThe Thomson Reuters Web of Science citation database was used to identify manuscripts relevant to papillary thyroid carcinoma. These were then subdivided into title, author, journal, publication date, theme, and manuscript types. Themes were then identified.ResultsA total of 1506 manuscripts were returned. The mean citation number was 163 (range 885-74), with the highest citation rate of 73.5. The highest impact factor was JAMA (impact factor of 56.27). 85% were original research, 10% review articles, and 5% were guidelines. The highest number of manuscripts were published in South Korea (21%).ConclusionsThis bibliometric analysis describes the most influential papers published in the topic of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Historic key themes have been endocrinology and metabolism, followed by surgical management and oncology (subdivided into surgery, pathology, radiology and public health/epidemiology). South Korea leads the world with the largest number of publications in this field; with an incidence rate of papillary thyroid carcinoma that is significantly higher than most parts of the world. Despite concerns with overdiagnosis, a collaborative radiological team skilled in ultrasonography of the neck appears to be of great value to the workup of thyroid cancers. Thyroid carcinoma is a global phenomenon affecting the global population. Mortality rates were 0.5 per 100,000 in women and 0.3 per 100,000 in men. Treatment for papillary thyroid carcinoma tends to begin with ultrasonography and fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) to diagnose and confirm malignancy. Due to the large and increasing incidence of papillary thyroid carcinoma worldwide, a large body of literature exists discussing various topics, including its surgical management, radiological identification and epidemiological prevalence. The following bibliometric analysis is aimed at describing the current trends and key themes that are shaping the literature surrounding papillary thyroid carcinoma; including its identification, management and epidemiology. A total of 1506 manuscripts were returned from the Web of Science Core Collection. The most cited paper was "Risk of malignancy in nonpalpable thyroid nodules: Predictive value of ultrasound and color-Doppler features" by Papini et al. The manuscript with the highest citation rate is "Ultrasonography Diagnosis and Imaging-Based Management of Thyroid Nodules: Revised Korean Society of Thyroid Radiology Consensus Statement and Recommendations" by Shin et al. The oldest paper in the top cited papers was "Papillary thyroid microcarcinoma-a study of 535 cases observed in a 50-year period" by Hay et al. The most recent manuscript was "US Fine-Needle Aspiration Biopsy for Thyroid Malignancy: Diagnostic Performance of Seven Society Guidelines Applied to 2000 Thyroid Nodules" by Ha et al., published in the journal "Radiology" in 2018. The largest number of manuscripts were published in the journal "Thyroid," with an impact factor of 6.57. In this search, the highest number of manuscripts were from South Korea (21%, n = 21), followed by joint second from Italy and the United States (19%, n = 19).