Bibliometric Analysis of Manuscript Characteristics That Influence Citations: A Comparison of Six Major Radiology Journals

OBJECTIVE. The objective of our study was to investigate radiology manuscript characteristics that influence citation rate, capturing features of manuscript construction that are discrete from study design. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Consecutive articles published from January 2004 to June 2004 were collected from the six major radiology journals with the highest impact factors: Radiology (impact factor, 5.076), Investigative Radiology (2.320), American Journal of Neuroradiology (AJNR) (2.384), RadioGraphics (2.494), European Radiology (2.364), and American Journal of Roentgenology (2.406). The citation count for these articles was retrieved from the Web of Science, and 29 article characteristics were tabulated manually. A point-biserial correlation, Spearman rank-order correlation, and multiple regression model were performed to predict citation number from the collected variables. RESULTS. A total of 703 articles-211 published in Radiology, 48 in Investigative Radiology, 106 in AJNR, 52 in RadioGraphics, 129 in European Radiology, and 157 in AJR-were evaluated. Punctuation was included in the title in 55% of the articles and had the highest statistically significant positive correlation to citation rate (point-biserial correlation coefficient [r(pb)] = 0.85, p < 0.05). Open access status provided a low-magnitude, but significant, correlation to citation rate (r(pb) = 0.140, p < 0.001). The following variables created a significant multiple regression model to predict citation count (p < 0.005, R-2 = 0.186): study findings in the title, abstract word count, abstract character count, total number of words, country of origin, and all authors in the field of radiology. CONCLUSION. Using bibliometric knowledge, authors can craft a title, abstract, and text that may enhance visibility and citation count over what they would otherwise experience.