Identifying disruptive publications and changing paradigms in vascular surgery

Abstract

Objective

A novel disruption index (DI) designed to measure impact of scientific research has been developed. However, the DI metric has not yet been applied to vascular surgery peer-reviewed publications. We hypothesized that vascular surgery-specific disruptive articles would increase over time with the advent of new surgical and technological advancements.

Methods

The Journal of Vascular Surgery was queried from its inception in 1984 to 2014 to identify the top 100 most disruptive publications. The DI ranges from −1 to 1, where negative scores represent developmental and positive scores indicate disruptive publications. Most impactful papers were identified and defined as being in both the 100 most cited and disruptive lists of publications.

Results

When the top 100 most cited publications were categorized by vascular disease, aortic research was the most frequently highly cited publication (42%). Low correlation was found between DI and citation, controlling for time after publication (R² = 0.0096; P = .78). Among the 100 most disruptive papers, publications discussing the field of vascular surgery as a unique subspecialty were the most common category of publication (24%). Narrowing down the 100 most disruptive publications with 50 or more citations (n = 30), aortic (37%) and venous (20%) publications were the most common. Among this group of publications, aortic papers were most disruptive between 1993 to 1997, and venous papers were most disruptive in the more recent years between 2001 to 2005. Eight papers were identified as being most disruptive and included topics of publication of aortic (n = 4), venous (n = 2), carotid (n = 1), and endovascular (n = 1) research, with an average DI of 0.14 and citation count between 174 and 712.

Conclusions

This is the first application of the DI to the field of vascular surgery. Although citation count is a vital metric, there remains limitations in its ability to measure impact. DI should be used in conjunction with citation count to provide a holistic analysis of publication impact. Additionally, the DI can identify shifting paradigms and innovations unique to vascular surgery and help guide education on impactful studies.