Articles published in Acta Orthopaedica et Traumatologica Turcica between 2003-2012: content, characteristics and publication trends.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine publications in Acta Orthopaedica et Traumatologica Turcica (AOTT) between 2003 and 2012 using bibliometric methods and to describe publication trends, characteristics and patterns of orthopedic publications in Turkey.

METHODS: All articles published in AOTT between 2003 and 2012 were identified and classified according to their study design and subspecialty of orthopedics. The following parameters from each manuscript were also identified: (1) the number of authors, (2) the number of institutions of the authors, (3) institutional affiliation of the first author, (4) origin of country of the first author, (5) sample size, (6) study outcome, (7) presence or absence of statistical methods, (8) presence of funding, and (9) time from submission to acceptance.

RESULTS: A total of 699 eligible articles were identified. The most common study designs were retrospective observational studies and case reports. The most common subspecialties of orthopedics were orthopedic trauma and hand and microsurgery. Institutional affiliation of the first author was a university hospital in 56.4% of the studies and origin of country of the first author was Turkey in 93.4%. Time from submission to acceptance was a mean of 7.11 months.

CONCLUSION: This study revealed the current status and trends of orthopedic publications in Turkey in the leading Turkish orthopedic journal AOTT over a 10-year period. The impact factor of AOTT shows a slow but stable increasing trend indicating a growing attention towards the journal.