Four Decades of Foot and Ankle Research Activity: A Scientometric study of Subspecialty Foot and Ankle Journals

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate foot and ankle documents using scientometric methods and provide insight into global research activities. METHODS: This scientometric study was conducted at the Department of Spine Surgery, Ganzhou People’s Hospital, China. Documents on foot and ankle from 1980 to 2019 were retrieved from the Scopus database. The number of documents, year of publication, journal, country, institution, author, h-index, and top-cited documents were analyzed. RESULTS: In total, 11313 documents were retrieved. The annual research output on foot and ankle showed a dramatic increase over the past four decades, especially in the past decade (p = 0.000). Foot & Ankle International published the biggest number of documents (44.48%). The United States contributed more than half (52.17%) of the global production, followed by the United Kingdom (11.39%), and Germany (3.62%). The United States had the highest h-index (109). The Hospital for Special Surgery (1.87%) ranked first in terms of productivity, followed by Union Memorial Hospital (1.37%), and Duke University Medical Center (1.24%). The most productive author was Myerson MS (1.25%), followed by Schon LC (0.77%), and Hyer CF (0.74%). CONCLUSION: Research on foot and ankle has thrived rapidly over the past four decades, particularly in the last decade. The United States contributes the most to the quantity and quality of foot and ankle documents.