Characteristics and trends of oral leukoplakia research

BACKGROUND: Bibliometric analysis highlights the key topics and studies which have shaped the understanding and management of a disease of interest. Here the top-cited articles on oral leukoplakia (OL) were characterized, and research patterns and trends were analyzed. METHODS: A comprehensive search was performed and identified in the Scopus database up to 22 February 2019 for the 100 most-cited articles on OL. RESULTS: The number of citations of the 100 selected articles varied from 116 to 1418, with a mean of 226.7 citations per article. Both Journal of Oral Pathology and Medicine and Oral Surgery Oral Medicine Oral Pathology Oral Radiology were journals with the most articles published (n = 10). Both Hong W.K. and Lippman S. were the most frequently contributing authors (n = 9). United States (n = 43) and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (n = 12) was most contributing country and institution, respectively. Systematic reviews/meta-analysis (n = 3) and randomized controlled trial (n = 7) were study designs with high evidence level. It is noteworthy that the majority of high-quality articles were the research of chemopreventive drugs (n = 21) and molecular markers/targets (n = 10), which may indicate a trend of key topics. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this first citation analysis of the most-cited articles on OL provide a historical perspective on scientific evolution, and suggest further research trends and clinical practice in the field of OL.