Poorly Cited Articles in Peer-Reviewed Cardiovascular Journals from 1997 to 2007 Analysis of 5-Year Citation Rates

Background-The extent to which articles are cited is a surrogate of the impact and importance of the research conducted; poorly cited articles may identify research of limited use and potential wasted investments. We assessed trends in the rates of poorly cited articles and journals in the cardiovascular literature from 1997 to 2007. Methods and Results-We identified original articles published in cardiovascular journals and indexed in the Scopus citation database from 1997 to 2007. We defined poorly cited articles as those with <= 5 citations in the 5 years following publication and poorly cited journals as those with >75% of journal content poorly cited. We identified 164 377 articles in 222 cardiovascular journals from 1997 to 2007. From 1997 to 2007, the number of cardiovascular articles and journals increased by 56.9% and 75.2%, respectively. Of all the articles, 75 550 (46.0%) were poorly cited, of which 25 650 (15.6% overall) had no citations. From 1997 to 2007, the proportion of poorly cited articles declined slightly (52.1%-46.2%, trend P<0.001), although the absolute number of poorly cited articles increased by 2595 (trend P<0.001). At a journal level, 44% of cardiovascular journals had more than three-fourths of the journal's content poorly cited at 5 years. Conclusion-Nearly half of all peer-reviewed articles published in cardiovascular journals are poorly cited 5 years after publication, and many are not cited at all. The cardiovascular literature and the number of poorly cited articles both increased substantially from 1997 to 2007. The high proportion of poorly cited articles and journals suggests inefficiencies in the cardiovascular research enterprise.