Citation classics in paediatric dentistry: a bibliometric study on the 100 most-cited articles

Purpose To perform a bibliometric analysis on the 100 most-cited articles to provide a historical perspective in the scientific advancement of research, and to identify the areas of more intense research. To determine the correlation of the Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) with the number of citations. Methods The articles were identified through a search of the Web Of Science (WOS) database. The information relative to the articles was collected. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the articles and the journals. The Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to explore the relationship among WOS citations, AAS and dimensions. Results The most-cited articles were published between 1967 and 2013. The articles were published in 18 different journals and cited from 69 to 305 times. The authors belonged to institutions in 20 different countries. The most common study design was observational followed by literature reviews. Conclusions The journals with a special interest in paediatric dentistry published the majority of the 100 most-cited articles. The most frequent field of study was caries and EEC. MIH and OHRQL displayed a high number of citations per year. A poor correlation exists between the citation count in the WOS and the AAS. Dimension citation count has a strong correlation with the WOS one.