The 100 most influential publications in paracetamol poisoning treatment: a bibliometric analysis of human studies

Background: Analysis of the most influential publications within paracetamol poisoning treatment can be helpful in recognizing main and novel treatment issues within the field of toxicology. The current study was performed to recognize and describe the most highly cited articles related to paracetamol poisoning treatment. Methods: The 100 most highly cited articles in paracetamol poisoning treatment were identified from the Scopus database in November 2015. All eligible articles were read for basic information, including total number of citations, average citations per year, authors' names, journal name, impact factors, document types and countries of authors of publications. Results: The median number of citations was 75 (interquartile range 56-137). These publications were published between 1974 and 2013. The average number of years since publication was 17.6 years, and 45 of the publications were from the 2000s. A significant, modest positive correlation was found between years since publication and the number of citations among the top 100 cited articles (r = 0.316; p = 0.001). A total of 55 journals published these 100 most cited articles. Nine documents were published in Clinical Toxicology, whereas eight documents were published in Annals of Emergency Medicine. Citations per year since publication for the top 100 most-cited articles ranged from 1.5 to 42.6 and had a mean of 8.5 citations per year and a median of 5.9 with an interquartile range of 3.75-10.35. In relation to the origin of the research publications, they were from 8 countries. The USA had the largest number of articles, 47, followed by the UK and Australia with 38 and nine articles respectively. Conclusions: This study is the first bibliometric assessment of the top 100 cited articles in toxicology literature. Interest in paracetamol poisoning as a serious clinical problem continues to grow. Research published in high-impact journals and from high income countries is most likely to be cited in published paracetamol research.