A scientometric analysis of literature published in Indian Journal of Ophthalmology from 2005 to 2017

PURPOSE: To perform an analysis of ophthalmic literature published by the Indian journal of ophthalmology (IJO) between 2005 and 2017 using scientometric techniques. METHODS: The bibliographic records of all the literature published in the study period were collected from PubMed and exported as XML into Microsoft access for scientometric analysis. Subspecialty wise distribution across time, type of articles published (original articles, case reports, review articles, editorials, and letter to editor), reference analysis, author productivity analysis and citation analysis were performed as per well-established scientometric methodology. RESULTS: A total of 2,633 papers were published in the IJO during the study period. Articles related to vitreoretinal diseases contributed 23% of all the articles published (n = 598) followed by corneal diseases (n = 313, 12%), and cataract (n = 293, 11%). There were equal numbers of case reports (n = 894, 34%) and original articles (n = 862, 33%) though case reports reduced over time. A total of 5490 unique authors from 64 countries published in the IJO with majority authors (63%) from India. Less than 80% of articles published in the IJO were cited (n = 2051, 78%) by 24,592 articles with retina-related papers contributing 20% of all citations. Original articles had three times more likelihood of being cited compared to case reports. CONCLUSION: The IJO showed a steady increase in the number of publications from year to year. Papers from the vitreoretinal domain were the commonest and were cited most often. Original articles and case reports contributed equally to the published content though the former were cited much more frequently than the latter.