The Most Cited Articles and Authors Published in Pubmed Central on the Topic of Opioid Use Disorders Since 2000

Background: Many regions are experiencing an epidemic of drug overdose (poisoning) deaths involving opioids (opioid pain relievers and heroin). A total of 47,055 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States, representing a 1-year increase of 6.5%, from 13.8 per 100,000 persons in 2013 to 14.7 per 100,000 persons in 2014. Numerous author collaborations have been made to publish articles using cause-of-death mortality data to examine current trends and characteristics of drug overdose deaths and opioid use disorders (OUD). Which articles and authors on OUD were most cited in the past years is unknown. Whether article types on OUD are different in cited metrics is required to study.

Methods: By searching the PubMed database (Pubmed.com), we used the keyword “opioid use disorders” and downloaded 371 articles published since 2000. A total of 1,868 articles were citedin Pubmed Central. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSHterms) were applied to cluster the journal types using social network analysisto compare the differences in the bibliometric indices, i.e., h, g, L, χ, and the author impact factor (AIF). The authorship-weighted scheme was used for quantifying coauthor contributions in an article byline. Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W) was performed to verify the differences in impact factors among MeSHclusters. A visual dashboard for the most-cited authors was shown on Google Maps.

Results: We observed that Kendall’s W is 0.74(χ2=17.68, df=6, p<0.001), congruent with the internal consistency on metrics across the article types. The top three mortality, epidemiology, and adverse effects relatively higher impact factors than the others. The author Rose A Rudd(the US) ranks the highest (i.e., χ=12.69, AIF=378.49, L=243.72, Ag=160.98) with one paper (PMID: 26720857, 2016) cited 250 times. The χ-indexes for opioid use disorders, the U.S., and the UK are 17.26, 16.77, and 3.91, respectively.

Conclusions: The article types might affect the journal impact factor. Both classifying the article types and quantifying the coauthor contributions incorporated with the bibliometric indices can be accommodated to scientific disciplinesin the future.

Keywords: Pubmed Central, authorship-weighted scheme, Medical Subject Headings, social network analysis, Google Maps, article type.