Publishing Characteristics of Foot and Ankle Research Over a 15-Year Time Interval: A Review of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery from 2004 to 2018.

Background: As the foot and ankle subspecialty continues to grow in orthopaedics, trends in published literature provide valuable insights to help understand and strengthen the field. The current study evaluates the changes in the characteristics of foot and ankle articles in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (American Volume) (JBJS-A) from 2004 to 2018.

Methods: Foot and ankle-related articles in JBJS-A from 2004 to 2018 were identified and categorized by type of study, level of evidence, number of authors, academic degree(s) of the first and last authors, male and female authorship, number of citations, number of references, region of publication, and use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs).