The top cited articles on glioma stem cells in Web of Science.

Background: Glioma is the most common intracranial tumor and has a poor patient prognosis. The presence of brain tumor stem cells was gradually being understood and recognized, which might be beneficial for the treatment of glioma.

Objective: To use bibliometric indexes to track study focuses on glioma stem cell, and to investigate the relationships among geographic origin, impact factors, and highly cited articles indexed in Web of Science.

Methods: A list of citation classics for glioma stem cells was generated by searching the database of Web of Science-Expanded using the terms "glioma stem cell" or "glioma, stem cell" or "brain tumor stem cell". The top 63 cited research articles which were cited more than 100 times were retrieved by reading the abstract or full text if needed. Each eligible article was reviewed for basic information on subject categories, country of origin, journals, authors, and source of journals. Inclusive criteria: (1) articles in the field of glioma stem cells which was cited more than 100 times; (2) fundamental research on humans or animals, clinical trials and case reports; (3) research article; (4) year of publication: 1899-2012; and (5) citation database: Science Citation Index-Expanded. Exclusive criteria: (1) articles needing to be manually searched or accessed only by telephone; (2) unpublished articles; and (3) reviews, conference proceedings, as well as corrected papers.

Results: Of 2 040 articles published, the 63 top-cited articles were published between 1992 and 2010. The number of citations ranged from 100 to 1 754, with a mean of 280 citations per article. These citation classics came from nineteen countries, of which 46 articles came from the United States. Duke University and University of California, San Francisco led the list of classics with seven papers each. The 63 top-cited articles were published in 28 journals, predominantly Cancer Research and Cancer Cell, followed by Cell Stem Cell and Nature.

Conclusion: Our bibliometric analysis provides a historical perspective on the progress of glioma stem cell research. Articles originating from outstanding institutions of the United States and published in high-impact journals are most likely to be cited.