The Bibliometric Aspects of Case Report/Series in Science Citation Index Otorhinolaryngology Journals

Objective:The rate of case report/series (CR/S) acceptance by the high impact journals is steadily declining mainly due to low citations. The aim of this study is primarily to investigate the bibliometric aspects of CR/S in the field of otorhinolaryngology (ORL) and secondarily to guide prospective authors as to which type of CR/S have better chances of acceptance and citation in the current publication climate.Methods:Bibliometric and citation analysis of CR/S published in Science Citation Index (SCI) journals of ORL covering the years of 2012-2016 was conducted.Results:There were 1332 (8.9%) CR/S among 14900 publications in 11 SCI ORL journals published between January 1st, 2012 and December 31st, 2016. The most common published field and subject were the ‘pediatric ORL’ (33.2%) and ‘rare cases/conditions’ (47.1%) respectively. ‘General ORL’ (5.13) and ‘treatment’ (4.93) categories had the highest citations. Only 10% of CR/S had ≥10 citations. The mean citation counts were positively correlated with impact factors of journals (r=0.131, p<0.001), mean number of authors (r=0.151, p<0.001), mean number of cases (r=0.192, p<0.001), mean number of references (r=0.315, p<0.001) and mean number of Web of Science visits (r=0.291, p