Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Aug 18, 2023; 14(8): 641-650
Published online Aug 18, 2023. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v14.i8.641
Scientific publications on orthopedic surgery from three major East Asian countries (2012-2021)
Wei-You Chen, Xin Xiao, Cheng Pan, Fei-Hong Huang, Hong-Yuan Xu, Qing-Jun Wei, Hua Jiang
Wei-You Chen, Xin Xiao, Cheng Pan, Fei-Hong Huang, Hong-Yuan Xu, Hua Jiang, Division of Spine Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Qing-Jun Wei, Hua Jiang, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Author contributions: Jiang H conceived and designed the study; Chen WY was involved in data retrieval and data selection, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript; Xiao X was involved in statistical analysis and manuscript revision; Pan C, Xu HY, and Huang FH were involved in data search; Jiang H and Wei QJ were involved in the selection of data and contributed analysis tools; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81860406; Guangxi Natural Science Foundation, No. 2023GXNSFAA026339; and Medical Excellence Award Funded by the Creative Research Development Grant from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hua Jiang, MD, PhD, Full Professor, Division of Spine Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 6 Shuangyong Road, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. drjianghua@163.com
Received: February 27, 2023
Peer-review started: February 27, 2023
First decision: May 25, 2023
Revised: June 8, 2023
Accepted: July 7, 2023
Article in press: July 7, 2023
Published online: August 18, 2023
Processing time: 171 Days and 8.1 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Orthopedic research in East Asia has made significant strides over the past 10 years. However, the current status of orthopedic research in the three major East Asian countries of Japan, South Korea, and China remains uncertain.

Research motivation

To explore the current state of orthopedic research in Japan, South Korea, and China and provide informative findings in the field of orthopedic science.

Research objectives

To visualize the publication quantity, global share, publication types, impact factor (IF), and citation trends of orthopedic studies from Japan, South Korea, and China during the period of 2012-2021 and to analyze the developmental trends in orthopedic research in East Asia over the past decade.

Research methods

According to the selection criteria, which include: (1) The journal was indexed in the PubMed database; and (2) the journal had IFs in accordance with the Journal Citation Reports for 2021, a total of 86 orthopedic journals were included. The PubMed and Web of Knowledge databases were searched from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2021, to retrieve articles published in the selected 86 journals by researchers from Japan, South Korea, and China. The publication quantity, global share, publication types, IF, and citation patterns of these papers were then analyzed and visualized. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 20.0 software.

Research results

Between 2012 and 2021, a total of 27164 orthopedic studies were published by Japan, South Korea, and China, showing a steady increase over the years. Among them, 44.32% were from China, 32.98% were from Japan, and 22.70% were from South Korea. Over time, the global share of articles significantly increased in South Korea (from 3.37% to 6.53%, P < 0.001) and China (from 5.29% to 9.61%, P < 0.001), while it decreased significantly in Japan (from 5.22% to 3.80%, P < 0.001). The annual total IFs of articles from China were well above those of articles from Japan and South Korea (36597.69 vs 27244.48 vs 20657.83, P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the number of top 10 high-IF orthopedics journals published among these three countries [South Korea (800) > China (787) > Japan (646), P > 0.05].

Research conclusions

China's orthopedic publications have seen consistent growth in the past decade, but when considering their population scales, Japan and South Korea still outpace China with respect to quality.

Research perspectives

The authors aim for this article to contribute toward the assessment and enhancement of academic productivity in orthopedic research in East Asia. In the future, it is imperative to foster stronger international cooperation and increase financial support for orthopedic research to produce a high level of evidence research and foster the sustained development of orthopedic research.