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Growing trend of China’s contribution to the field of spine: a 10-year survey of the literature

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Abstract

Purpose

China, as a rapidly developing country with the largest population including over 50,000 orthopaedic surgeons, has an increasing importance in the field of spine. However, the quantity and quality of research production in the field of spine in the major regions of China—Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the contribution of China to the field of spine.

Methods

Articles published in the 5 major spine journals originating from Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong in 2004–2013 were retrieved from the database of Web of Science. The number of articles, impact factors, citations, article type, city, institution, funding source and conflict of interest were analyzed.

Results

There were 1006 publications in the 5 spine journals between 2004 and 2013 from China, including 706 from Mainland China, 210 from Taiwan, and 90 from Hong Kong. The time trend of the number of articles from these three regions showed a significant increase of 8.74-fold (from 23 to 201) between 2004 and 2013 (p = 0.000). From 2006, the number of publications from Mainland China exceeded Taiwan and Hong Kong. Mainland China had the highest total impact factors (1686.54) and total citations (4214), followed by Taiwan (498.93; 2009) and Hong Kong (222.89; 1311). Hong Kong had the highest mean impact factor (2.48) and mean citations (14.46), followed by Mainland China (2.40; 10.26) and Taiwan (2.38; 10.14). The journal Spine published the largest number of articles (470), followed by European Spine Journal (268).

Conclusions

Chinese contributions to the field of spine have a significant increase during the past 10 years, particularly from Mainland China. Hong Kong had the highest quality research output in terms of mean impact factor and mean citation per article.

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Conflict of interest

None of the authors has any potential conflict of interest.

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Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Orthopaedics, Navy General Hospital, Clinical School of Navy, Second Military Medical University, No. 6 Fucheng Road, Beijing, 100048, China

      Zhi Wei Jia, Hai Feng Li, Cong Liang Yao, Long Gang Liu, De Li Wang, Qing He & Di Ke Ruan

    2. The Third Clinical College, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China

      Yao Hong Wu, Hao Li & Ya Chao Zhao

    3. Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

      Xi Yan Zhao

    4. The Navy Clinical College, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China

      Yong Tang

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    1. Zhi Wei Jia
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    2. Yao Hong Wu
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    3. Hao Li
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    4. Hai Feng Li
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    5. Xi Yan Zhao
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    6. Yong Tang
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    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to Di Ke Ruan.

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    All authors contributed equally to this work.

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    Cite this article

    Jia, Z.W., Wu, Y.H., Li, H. et al. Growing trend of China’s contribution to the field of spine: a 10-year survey of the literature. Eur Spine J 24, 1806–1812 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-015-4030-y

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-015-4030-y

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