Peer reviewing in foot and ankle surgery: is there a limit to scientific altruism?

INTRODUCTION: Complex foot and ankle trauma surgery is a super-specialization of orthopedic trauma surgery. This topic is gaining in interest, both clinically and in research. The peer review process is the cornerstone of the current scientific model of evaluation of research papers. The burden of peer review activity in foot and ankle trauma surgery is currently unknown. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A comprehensive Microsoft Outlook® analysis of over seven years’ worth of review invites from one surgical Foot & Ankle specialist working at a Level-1 trauma center was evaluated. The topic of each paper was recorded. Whether or not the journal was specifically foot ankle, orthopedic, general medicine or predatory of origin was noted. In addition, it was recorded if the journal was indexed in Pubmed, Medline, or Scopus. The topic of the paper was scored as being foot and ankle related, and more specifically foot and ankle trauma related. Review of revisions were scored as invites as well. RESULTS: From January 2013 to December 2019 a total of 467 review invites were received. The number of peer review invitations rose from 14 in 2013 to 127 in 2019. The percentage of foot and ankle specific journals was 27.4%. The number of requests from non-indexed (predatory) journals rose from 3.7% in 2014 to 36.2% in 2019, with a decrease in article topics related to the authors subspecialty. The annual absolute number of performed reviews stayed approximately the same throughout the study period (34 on average in the last 5 years). CONCLUSION: The number of review requests in foot and ankle surgery has increased about 5-fold over the 5 year period evaluated. There is a need for more reviewers to spread the burden. Therefore, foot and ankle specialists who are prepared to publish, should also be prepared to provide peer reviews to maintain a high level of quality in foot and ankle research.