Top 10 articles 2012 & 2013 – citations and scientific significance

January 1, 2015

Neuropenews (NN) has as one of its constant features a Section, named “TOP 10”, with the list of the 10 most cited papers in the neurological literature over the preceding two (full) years, i.e. for the NN 2014 Issues, the publication years 2012 and 2013. This Section was aimed to direct the readers to relevant information for clinical practice, by selecting the “hottest” topics/papers from the previous two years. The papers in the “Top 10” list were found by searching ISI Web of Science, through the key words “neurology” and “neurological sciences”.

There has been some criticism that important areas have not been covered in this feature. It is certainly correct that the search criteria will have a decisive impact on the papers in the list, and that there was a tendency to ignore papers covering more narrow topics in neurology, or labelled differently from the preselected key-words.

However, all this raise a more basic question: how informative citations and impact factor (I.F.) are for the final scientific importance of a given paper. Recently, Nature (vol. 514, 2014, pp. 550-553) explored citations of the top 100 papers pointing out that research that deals with important methodology will reach the highest number of citations. For example, the paper by OH Lowry et al (J Biol Chem, 1951, 193, 265-275) on measurement of the amount of protein in a solution has been cited more than 305,000 times (the most cited paper in history). In this context it is of interest that this paper was cited about 50 times during the first two years after its publication. That the number of citations during the early life of a paper tells little about its scientific impact is also illustrated by the fact that the key publications indicated by the Nobel committee for awarding John O’Keefe the shared Nobel Prize in medicine in 2014 for discovering the place neurons in the hippocampus were cited 8-10 times during the first two years after their publication in 1971 and 1976, respectively (Brain Res 1971, 34, 171-175 (today total number of citations 1785); Exp Neurol 1976, 51, 78-109 (today total number of citations 648)). In other words, these paper, that have been evaluated to be awarded with a Nobel Prize, would have never been selected in our TOP 10 Section.

Therefore, we have to take into account that the number of citations during the early life of a paper and the impact factor of the journal where it is published may provide little information about the scientific value of a research article. Possibly the I.F. of the journal is more predictive, and accordingly the I.F. of Brain Research (2.828 for 2013) and of Experimental Neurology (4.617 for 2013) are quite respectable (however far from the IF of nature : 42.351 in 2013). In conclusion, a TOP 10 list of the very recent more quoted papers may just indicate a “hot” topic in a subspecialty with many careful researchers. But, to our opinion, it is questionable to attribute a more relevant scientific value to a paper published in 2013 because it received about 227 quotations

Kidwell, C.S., Jahan, R., Gornbein, J., Alger, J.R., Nenov, V., Ajani, Z., Feng, L., Meyer, B.C., Olson, S., Schwamm, L.H., Yoo, A.J., Marshall, R.S., Meyers, P.M., Yavagal, D.R., Wintermark, M., Guzy, J., Starkman, S., Saver, J.L., Investigators, M.R. 2013. A Trial of Imaging Selection and Endovascular Treatment for Ischemic Stroke. N Engl J Med 368(10), 914-23. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1212793.Times Cited: 227

in respect to a paper published in the following issue of the same journal ( NEJ Med, IF 52.42 in 2013), that is the paper from

Pandharipande, P.P., Girard, T.D., Jackson, J.C., Morandi, A., Thompson, J.L., Pun, B.T., Brummel, N.E., Hughes, C.G., Vasilevskis, E.E., Shintani, A.K., Moons, K.G., Geevarghese, S.K., Canonico, A., Hopkins, R.O., Bernard, G.R., Dittus, R.S., Ely, E.W., Investigators, B.-I.S. 2013. Long-Term Cognitive Impairment after Critical Illness. N Engl J Med 369(14), 1306-16. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1301372. Times Cited: 52

only because the number of quotations is “significantly” minor.

All this considered, Neuropenews is considering a change in its current practice regarding important new literature. In addition to the keywords “neurology” and “neurological sciences” we have selected 21 key-words from the List of the Abstract Topics of our Congress.

These are :

Ageing and dementia
Cerebrovascular diseases/Stroke
Clinical Neurophysiology
Cognitive neurology/neuropsychology
Critical care
Epilepsy
Headache and pain
Infections and AIDS
Motor Neuron Disease
Movement Disorders
MS and related disorders
Muscle and neuromuscular junction disease
Neuroepidemiology
Neurogenetics
Neuroimaging/Neurosonology
Neuroimmunology
Neuro-oncology
Neurorehabilitation
Neurotraumatology
Peripheral nerve disorders
Spinal cord and root disorders

These 21 Topics have be divided between the Editors, who will search the ISI Web of Science, through the assigned subspecialty key words, to select the final TOP10, one for each subspecialty.

In this context, the Editorial Board, with the backing of the President of the EAN, would then like to take advantage of the expertise of the Chairpersons and Committees of the subspecialties in the process of guiding readers to important new literature. We propose to send the titles of these most cited papers to the Chairpersons and ask them to give a short overview/criticism of these papers to help readers to benefit better from this information.

We have to remind our readers that it has been quite surprising for us to find that sometimes this procedure would have selected through a key-word as specific as (for example ) “Epilepsy”, papers that – to our opinion – do not concern “Epilepsy” at all. Or that the key-word “Peripheral nerve disorders” resulted in a paper concerning “Movement Disorders”. However, all these papers covered a neurological topic whatsoever, and so the final TOP10 list could be edited and published in Neuropenews.

For the January Issue of Neuropenews, probably due to the Christmas Holidays, we have been unable to check all the 21 key-words.
We are confident to be able to complete the full List for the February 2015 Issue.

TOP10 2013

from Key-words : Ageing and Dementia, Cerebrovascular diseases & stroke, cognitive neurology/neuropsychology, critical care, Clinical Neurophysiology, epilepsy, Headache ad Pain, Motor Neurone Diseases, Movement Disorders, MS and Related Disorders, Muscle & neuromuscular junction disease, Neuroepidemiology, Neuroimaging, Neurosonology, Neuro-oncology, Neurorehabilitation, Neurotraumatology, Peripheral Nerve Disorders, Spinal Cord & Root disorders

1 A Trial of Imaging Selection and Endovascular Treatment for Ischemic Stroke
Kidwell, CS.; Jahan, R; Gornbein, J; et al.
Group Author(s): MR RESCUE Investigators
NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE Volume: 368 Issue: 10 Pages: 914-923 Published: MAR 7 2013
232 citations (Web of Science)

2 Variant of TREM2 Associated with the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease
Jonsson, T; Stefansson, H; Steinberg, S; et al.
NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE Volume: 368 Issue: 2 Pages: 107-116 Published: JAN 10 2013
156 citations (Web of Science)

3 The spectrum of disease in chronic traumatic encephalopathy
McKee, AC.; Stein, TD.; Nowinski, CJ.; et al.
BRAIN Vol 136 Pages: 43-64 Part: 1 Published: JAN 2013
121 citations (Web of Science)

4 Mutations in prion-like domains in hnRNPA2B1 and hnRNPA1 cause multisystem proteinopathy and ALS
Kim HJ, Kim NC, Wang Y-D et al.;
NATURE Volume: 495 Issue: 7442 Pages: 467-+ DOI: 10.1038/nature11922 Published: MAR 28 2013
107 citations (Web of Science)

5 The changing scene of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Robberecht, W; Philips, T
NATURE REVIEWS NEUROSCIENCE Volume: 14 Issue: 4 Pages: 248-264 DOI: 10.1038/nrn3430 Published: APR 2013
100 citations (Web of Science)

6 De novo mutations in epileptic encephalopathies
Allen, AS, Berkovic SF, Cossette P, et al;
NATURE, Volume 501; Issue 7466; pag 217
91 citations (Web of Science)

7 Neurostimulation for Parkinson’s Disease with Early Motor Complications
Schuepbach, WMM; Rau, J; Knudsen, K; et al.
Group Author(s): EARLYSTIM Study Grp
NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE Volume: 368 Issue: 7 Pages: 610-622 Published: FEB 14 2013
87 citations (Web of Science)

8 Controversies and priorities in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Turner, MR; Hardiman, O; Benatar, M et al.;
LANCET NEUROLOGY Volume: 12 Issue: 3 Pages: 310-322 Published: MAR 2013
73 citations (Web of Science)

9 A comprehensive assessment of regional variation in the impact of head micromovements on functional connectomics
Yan, Chao-Gan; Cheung, Brian; Kelly, Clare; et al.
NEUROIMAGE Volume: 76 Issue: 1 Pages: 183-201 Published: AUG 1 2013
70 citations (Web of Science)

10 Concurrent activation of striatal direct and indirect pathways during action initiation.
Cui, Guohong; Jun, Sang Beom, Jin Xin, et al.;
NATURE, Vol 494; Issue 7436; pages 238-242, publ. Febr 2013
56 citations (Web of Science)