Changing Publication Trends in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

Introduction: In this review, we aim to assess the categorical distribution of publications in 3 leading general OMS journals, , , ) over the span of 21-years.

Method: We examined all full-length publications between 1998 and 2018 in 3 OMS journals (IJOMS, BJOMS, JOMS) and categorised into 16 pre-determined categories. These included facial aesthetic, anatomical, craniofacial, implantology, pre-prosthetic, oncology, orthognathic, pathology, pharmacology, radiology, reconstruction, obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), technical notes, third molar, temporomandibular joint, and trauma. Statistical analysis was conducted to analyse the proportional changes in these categories over 2 time periods.

Results: A total of 14,324 articles were analysed. This included 3745 articles in IJOMS, 7229 from JOMS, and 3745 from BJOMS. The areas of greatest change were seen with a statistically significant increase in the field of orthodontics, OSA, and implantology in 2 of the 3 journals. There was a marked reduction proportion of case reports/series over this period.

Conclusions: The subject areas where there has been a proportional increase in publications included orthognathics, implantology, and sleep-related studies. Most other subject areas remain unchanged with a decrease noted in pathology-related articles.