Hot topics in anaesthesia: a bibliometric analysis of five high-impact journals from 2010–2019

Publication of research in anaesthesia is increasingly competitive. Understanding what topics of research are more likely to be published and where, is clearly valuable for authors seeking to optimise reach and impact of their work. This study aimed to identify the relative proportion of anaesthesia articles by topic for five anaesthesia journals over a 10-year period from 2010 to 2019, including any differences between journals and regions. We chose five anaesthesia journals based on current impact factor. All journal issues published between 2010–2019 were checked for total number of articles with only original research articles being further categorised by topic, country of research, funding status and citation count. Of 5782 original research articles analysed, the most frequent article topics published were translational studies (16%) and clinical practice (16%). Obstetric anaesthesia was the least frequent published (4%). Translational studies were the most frequently funded (84%) while articles on paediatric anaesthesia were least frequently funded (29%). The average number of citations per funded article was 37 versus 28 for non-funded articles. Translational studies were the most frequently published topic of research conducted in North America (25%) and Asia (25%), but of only average frequency in Europe (9%). Studies in obstetric and paediatric anaesthesia are less well-represented in anaesthesia literature and researchers may experience greater difficulty publishing these topics and obtaining funding accordingly. Authors should be aware of the diverse publishing tendencies of the different journals in anaesthesia in order to save time and effort when submitting research for publication.