Looking at the dark side: A bibliometric study on uncited and poorly cited articles in orthodontic research

Abstract

Background: Many studies have analysed the bibliometric characteristics of highly cited articles in dentistry, and orthodontics. However, scant attention has been paid to articles with low citation rates. The aim of this study is to identify author- and article-specific factors that may be associated with a low citation rate at least 6 years after publication. Material and Methods: In June 2023, a cross-sectional study was conducted on articles published between 2009 and 2018 in eight orthodontic journals indexed in the Journal Citation Report. The study recorded author- and article-specific variables for articles that received zero citations and those that received between one and three cita- tions. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the articles and journals included in the study. Pearson’s correla- tion analysis was used to test the correlation between a journal’s impact factor and the number of low-cited articles for the individual journals. The articles’ related topics were further analysed using VOSviewer 1.6.6 software. Results: The electronic search identified 11,257 published items. After applying the inclusion and exclusion crite- ria, 216 uncited and 683 poorly cited articles were included in the final assessment. The Australasian Orthodontic Journal had the highest number of uncited and poorly cited articles, followed by Seminars in Orthodontics. A high negative correlation was found between the journal impact factor and the normalized number of uncited and poorly cited articles. The majority of uncited articles were expert opinions (28.24%), case reports (21.76%), and narrative reviews (21.30%). The most frequent topics were legislation, litigation, and ethics, followed by marketing and management. Most of the poorly cited articles were observational (29.43%) or translational studies (26.21%), and case reports (22.55%). The most prevalent topic in this cohort was eruption problems. Conclusions: The impact factor of a journal is linked to the number of published articles that receive a low citation rate. Orthodontics has a higher prevalence of such articles compared to other branches of medicine. Topics such as litigation, legislation, ethics, and marketing tend to receive low citation rates. Uncited articles often consist of expert opinions or narrative reviews. Case reports are a common study design in both uncited and poorly cited articles.