Table 3.
Characteristics of citing articles
| Characteristics | Total (n=4,535) | Feasibility study (n=1,540) | Verification set (n=2,995) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Article type,* n (%) | |||
| Original research | 2,490 (54.9) | 836 (54.3) | 1654 (55.2) |
| Review | 1324 (29.2) | 484 (31.4) | 840 (28.0) |
| Comment/Note | 54 (1.2) | 8 (0.5) | 46 (1.5) |
| Letter | 61 (1.3) | 15 (1.0) | 46 (1.5) |
| Brief/short report/communication | 50 (1.1) | 18 (1.2) | 32 (1.1) |
| Case report/series | 136 (3.0) | 59 (3.8) | 77 (2.6) |
| Study protocol | 19 (0.4) | 1 (0.1) | 18 (0.6) |
| Guidelines | 35 (0.8) | 10 (0.6) | 25 (0.8) |
| Pilot | 3 (0.1) | 2 (0.1) | 1 (0.1) |
| Opinion | 29 (0.6) | 0 (0) | 29 (1.0) |
| Editorial, editorial comment | 87 (1.9) | 11 (0.7) | 76 (2.5) |
| Other | 247 (5.4) | 96 (6.2) | 151 (5.0) |
| Self-citation, n (%) | 484 (10.7) | 92 (6.0) | 392 (13.1) |
| Citation style, n (%) | |||
| Vancouver or mixed | 4172 (92.0) | 1265 (82.1) | 2907 (97.1) |
| Harvard | 363 (8.0) | 275 (17.9) | 88 (2.9) |
| Number of authors, median (range) | 5 (1, 65) | 4 (1, 65) | 5 (1, 36) |
| Impact factor† | |||
| Have an impact factor, n (%) | 3,955 | 1,227 | 2,728 |
| Median (range) | 3.262 | 3.055 | 3.374 |
| (0.049, 79.260) | (0.051, 34.833) | (0.049, 79.260) | |
| Number of references in reference list | |||
| Median (range) | 41 (1, 1131) | 47 (1, 1131) | 38 (1, 620) |
| Time to citation, median (range), years | 6 (0, 24) | 6 (0, 23) | 5 (0, 24) |
| Number of citations, n (%) | |||
| 1 | 3,114 (68.7) | 1,046 (67.9) | 2,068 (69.0) |
| 2 | 775 (17.1) | 260 (16.9) | 515 (17.2) |
| 3 | 313 (6.9) | 121 (7.9) | 192 (6.4) |
| 4 | 149 (3.3) | 52 (3.4) | 97 (3.2) |
| ≥5 | 178 (3.9) | 60 (3.9) | 118 (3.9) |
*
Defined by the journal
†
Retrieved from Journal Citation Reports for all journals that were indexed at the time when the citing article was published