The 100 most influential manuscripts in gastric cancer: A bibliometric analysis

• The most cited topic was the pathogenesis of gastric cancer relating to Helicobacter Pylori infection.
• The most cited nations were USA (29%) and Japan (28%).
• Reporting of clinical trials has the fastest growing citation rate.
• The most influential papers are not confined to the highest ranking journals.

BackgroundBibliometric analysis highlights the key topics and publications which have shaped the understanding and management of Gastric cancer. Here the 100 most cited manuscripts in the field of gastric cancer (GC) are analysed.MethodsThe Thomson Reuters Web of Science database with the search terms 'gastric cancer’ or ‘gastric carcinoma’ or ‘stomach cancer’ or ‘stomach carcinoma’ or ‘gastroscopy’ was used to identify all English language full manuscripts for the study. The 100 most cited papers were further analysed by topic, journal, author, year and institution.Results122,616 eligible papers were returned and the median (range) citation number was 417 (2893–299). The most cited paper (by Parsonnet) focused on H.Pylori risk and gastric cancer (2893 citations). Cancer Research published the highest number of papers (n = 13, 6901 citations) and The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) had the most citations (n = 8, 9358 citations). The country and year with the greatest number of publications were the USA (n = 29), and 1998 (n = 10). The most ubiquitous topic was the pathology of gastric cancer (n = 57) followed by aetiology of gastric cancer (n = 47), and basic science of gastric cancer (n = 44).ConclusionThe most cited manuscripts highlighted in this study describe the science related to the pathogenesis of GC including surgery and regimens that have resulted in the contemporary understanding and treatment of GC. This work provides the most influential references related to GC and serves as a guide as to what makes a citable paper.