Optimizing the Impact of Your Foot and Ankle Research: Publication Trends in the Orthopaedic Literature

BackgroundResearch is an essential component of medical advancement and knowledge dissemination in foot and ankle (FA) orthopaedic surgery. With an ever-growing body of literature, it can be challenging to fully understand and monitor the discipline's vast publishing landscape. The purpose of this study is to provide a practical resource that outlines journal characteristics and publication trends to help identify suitable journals for an investigator's FA manuscript.MethodsWe examined all published articles from 58 English language journals, including general orthopaedic, sport, and FA-specific journals between 2018-2022 in an observational, cross-sectional study design. The author team generated keyword lists and categorized articles into 9 broad topics. We calculated a 5-year impact factor by using Web of Science total citation counts in 2023 for articles published between 2018-2022 divided by the total publications from 2018 to 2022. Variables such as publishing nationality, author count, and research type were also collected using MEDLINE article metadata and summarized for each journal.ResultsThe 58 journals published 81 675 articles (13 157 specifically FA, 16.1%) between 2018 and 2022. FA articles contributed to ≥10% of publications in only 30 journals. On average, ankle/hindfoot topics were the most popular FA topic across the 30 journals, accounting for 76.5% of all FA articles. Arthroscopy/minimally invasive surgery articles were the most impactful at 1.43 ± 0.04 citations per year. On average, larger author teams are mildly associated with increased citations (R² = 0.337 linear relationship).ConclusionAnkle/hindfoot and arthroscopic/minimally invasive surgery were the most popular and impactful topics in recent FA literature, respectively, making them high yield areas of research for investigators. However, we outline notable differences in the preferences among FA topics and research type across journals, ultimately providing a valuable tool for optimizing FA research by identifying the most suitable journals for a manuscript.Levels of Evidence:4.