Analysis of the most highly cited articles from the 50-year history of CCA

Background: The 50th anniversary of CCA in 2006 prompted analysis of the most highly cited articles from the Journal's history. Methods: Lists of most highly cited CCA articles were obtained from Current Contents (1974, 1991) and CCA (2006); all based on the ISI/Thomson Scientific database. PubMed search identified country of origin. Results: Distribution of the most highly cited CCA articles was skewed towards those with high total citations. From the beginning, these articles originated from a diverse group of countries. This diversity increased with time to include countries from 4 continents. The most highly cited articles emerged at least 8-16 years following their publication. During the first 35 years of the Journal, there was a significant positive correlation between the total number of citations and the publication date of cited articles. Initially, virtually all most highly cited articles were methods papers, whereas during the past 25 years less than half of them reported methods; clinical research papers and reviews making up the rest. Conclusions: Results of this analysis may help in editorial policy-making and marketing of the Journal and in assessing the impact of individual countries on the field, and may guide authors' decision in submitting articles to the Journal. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.