The 100 most cited articles in ectopic pregnancy: a bibliometric analysis

Ectopic pregnancy (EP) remains a major gynecological emergency and is a cause of morbidity or even mortality in women. As a consequence, top citation analysis of EP research in database of the Science Citation Index Expanded is needed to assess the publication trends of leading countries/territories and institutes as well as the research hotspots of EP. A total of 4881 articles relevant to EP were retrieved in the database of the Science Citation Index Expanded from 1965 to present, in which the 100 top-cited articles were selected for further analysis. The number of citations ranged from 81 to 482 (131.57 ± 69.76), with a time span of 40 years between 1969 and 2009. These citation classics came from 14 countries, and 65 of the articles came from the United States. Yale University in Connecticut led the list of classics with six papers. The 100 top-cited articles were published in 32 journals, in which the journal of Fertility and Sterility published the most (23 papers). Stovall TG and Ling FW published the highest number of studies (6 papers each). Articles that originated in the United States and that were published in high-impact journals were most likely to be cited in the field of EP research. Bibliometric analysis was used to provide a historical perspective on the progress in EP research over the past 50 years. Citation analysis is a feasible tool to comprehensively recognize the advances of EP research in the past and future research.