Study looks at thyroid eye disease research in a global context

A new analysis shows that thyroid eye disease (TED) research is a globally collaborative effort, drawing expertise from various medical disciplines. The diversity in contributions and the influence of journal impact factor underscore the robustness and broad applicability of the findings in this field.

A search was conducted in the Scopus database to identify the most highly cited works related to TED from the time it was first studied. The search yielded a total of 76 primary research articles and 24 secondary articles. These papers were published between the years 1969 and 2021, appearing in a total of 29 different journals. The number of citations these articles received varied, with a median of 186.5 and a range of citations from 133 to 930.

Below are key findings from the review.

1. Diverse Contribution: The review found that highly cited TED papers were contributed by a variety of medical disciplines, suggesting that research in this area benefits from a diverse range of perspectives and expertise.
2. Global Contribution: The research on TED spanned across 10 different countries, indicating that it is a topic of international interest and importance. The United States was the most prolific contributor in terms of both the number of articles (38) and citations (9194).
3. Dominant Journals and Articles: The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism emerged as the most cited journal for TED research, with 25 articles and a total of 5126 citations. The highest cited individual article was ‘Graves’ Ophthalmopathy’ by Bahn, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2010, with 930 citations.
4. Authorship and Specialties: The most common corresponding authors were from the fields of endocrinology (59 articles) and ophthalmology (26 articles), underlining the significance of these disciplines in TED research. In addition, 19 first authors contributed multiple articles, indicating sustained interest and expertise in the field.
5. Impact Factor and Citation Count: The study found a significant association between the journal’s impact factor and the citation count of the TED papers.

Reference
Tao B, Micieli J. The Top 100 Most-Cited Articles on Thyroid Eye Disease: A Bibliometric Study. Semin Ophthalmol. 2023;doi: 10.1080/08820538.2023.2256838. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37695018.