Who is Publishing in Facial Cosmetic Surgery? A Citation Analysis Across Specialties Over Five Decades.

Background: Competition among our sister cosmetic specialties continues to increase. Once a field dominated by plastic surgeons, there is a clear trend toward increased competition from core and non-core disciplines. While these marketplace trends are obvious, how such competition has affected academia or peer reviewed publications is less clear.

Objectives: We analyzed the most cited peer reviewed facial aesthetic literature over the past five decades to see if marketplace trends are echoed in a similar manner across the academic disciplines of plastic surgery, otolaryngology, dermatology, and ophthalmology.

Methods: The top 50 cited articles for each decade from the 1970s to the 2010s were identified for the topics of facelift, rhinoplasty, browlift, and blepharoplasty using the Thomson/Reuters Web of Knowledge. Data collected were: the number of citations/article, first authors' specialty affiliation, and journal specialty affiliation. Data were plotted graphically and trends were analyzed.

Results: With regards to first authorship, plastic surgery had the highest percentage across all surgeries at every time point, except for rhinoplasty from 2010-present, when otolaryngology had a higher percentage (48% vs 40%). Observed trends demonstrated: (1) increasing contributions from otolaryngology in rhinoplasty, facelift, and browlift; and (2) increasing contributions from ophthalmology in blepharoplasty. Plastic surgery journals are the most common platform for publication across all four surgeries.

Conclusions: Plastic surgeons, and plastic surgery journals, still remain a strong force in academic facial cosmetic surgery. However, it appears that the competition from non-plastic surgeons observed in clinical practice is being mirrored in the area of journal publications. We as a specialty need to continue to strive for high quality academic productivity.