The 100 most cited articles on lung cancer screening: a bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND: The number of citations of an article reflects its impact on the scientific community. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the 100 most cited articles on lung cancer screening. METHODS: The 100 most cited articles on lung cancer screening published in all scientific journals were identified using the Web of Science database. Relevant data, including the number of citations, publication year, publishing journal and impact factor (IF), authorship and country of origin, article type and study design, screening modality, and main topic, were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: The 100 most cited articles were all English and published between 1973 and 2017, with 81 published after 2000. The mean number of citations was 292.90 (range 100–3,910). Sixty articles originated from the United States. These articles were published in 32 journals; there was a statistically significant positive correlation between journal IF and the number of citations (r=0.238, P=0.018). Seventy-nine articles were original research of which 37.9% were about results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The most common screening modalities in these articles were low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) (n=78), followed by chest X-ray radiography (CXR) and sputum cytology (n=11). The most common topic in these articles was screening test effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: Our study presents a detailed list and analysis of the 100 most cited articles published about lung cancer screening which provides insight into the historical developments and key contributions in this field.