Highly Cited Occupational Therapy Articles in the Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index: A Bibliometric Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: A bibliometric analysis was completed of highly cited occupational therapy literature and authors published from 1991 to 2014 and accessible in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) databases.

METHOD: Data were obtained from the SCI-Expanded and SSCI. Articles referenced >100 times were categorized as highly cited articles (HCA).

RESULTS: Of 6,486 articles found, 31 were categorized as HCA. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy published the largest number of HCA (n = 8; 26%). The 31 HCA were distributed across seven countries: United States (20 articles), Canada (3), United Kingdom (3), Australia (2), the Netherlands (1), New Zealand (1), and Sweden (1). The three authors with the highest Y-index were S. J. Page, F. Clark, and W. Dunn.

CONCLUSION: A latency period of 4 to 5 yr post-publication appears to be needed for a journal article to gain citations.