Top 100 Most-Cited Articles In Low Back Pain: A 22-Year Survey Of Publication Activity

The field of low back pain research has gained more attentions over these years due to the prevalence of low back pain. The main objective of this article is to report the top 100 cited articles in the field of low back pain research and provide a practical guide and references in evaluating the low back pain literature. The 100 most cited articles were selected and analyzed base on the number of citations in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) without any time or study-type restriction. The citation ranged from 300 to 1469 in the top 100 cited articles in the field of low back pain research with an average citation number of 527.95. Notably, 2003 is the most productive year with 12 of top 100 cited articles published. The leading country is United States that published the largest number of articles (n=51). University of Washington is the most productive institution with 17 articles. The journal published the highest number of top 100 cited articles was Spine with 26, followed by Pain with 14. Sixty-three of the 100 most cited articles were original articles and 35 were reviews. Fifty-four articles concerning the subspecialty of Neurosciences Neurology, followed by Orthopedics (n=37). The study provided an insight on the citation rank of low back pain research and identified the top 100 cited articles in this particular field, which may be utilized to guide low back pain-related research and healthcare.