The Top 100 Most Impactful Articles on the Achilles Tendon According to Altmetric Attention Score and Number of Citations.

BACKGROUND: Achilles tendon injuries often generate substantial discussion in the mainstream media. The Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) measures the online dialogue pertaining to Achilles tendon research that occurs outside scientific journals, which traditional citation-based metrics fail to capture.

PURPOSE: To characterize the top 100 most-cited Achilles tendon articles and compare them with the 100 Achilles tendon articles with the highest AAS. A secondary goal was to gain an improved understanding of the online dissemination and interpretation of Achilles tendon research through this comparison.

STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

METHODS: The Web of Science Clarivate database was queried to isolate the 100 most-cited Achilles tendon articles, and the Altmetric database was queried to identify the Achilles tendon articles with the top 100 AAS values. Data elements were extracted for each article including study type, study topic, and geographic origin.

RESULTS: The Web of Science Clarivate database search yielded 10,890 articles published between 1970 and 2021. The 100 most-cited articles were published in 35 journals, with the American Journal of Sports Medicine being the most prevalent. The mean (±SD) number of citations was 214.5 ± 86.47. The most prevalent study type was laboratory (28.0%). The most prevalent study topic was treatment (41.0%). Of these articles, 72.0% were European. The Altmetric database search yielded 3810 articles published between 1957 and 2021. The AAS of the top 100 articles ranged from 37 to 476 with a mean of 98.17 ± 85.53. The selected articles were published in 39 journals, with the British Journal of Sports Medicine being the most prevalent. The most prevalent study type was randomized controlled trial (25.0%). The most common study topic was treatment (40.0%). Of these articles, 46.0% were European.

CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that, although the scientific community remains committed to high-impact journals with articles backed by high citation numbers, there is an increasing opportunity to consume Achilles tendon literature through social media.