(327) A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE MOST CITED ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION PAPERS: A REFERENCE FOR ANDROLOGISTS
Authors: Appleton A , Pardini Furtado T , Dixon M , Eleswarapu S , Mills J , Jayadevan R , Andino J 
Published: December 2024

Introduction

Erectile dysfunction (ED) has been consistently identified as a potential harbinger of cardiovascular disease, making it both a quality-of-life issue and a prognostic indicator for a major cause of morbidity in men. To provide appropriate risk stratification, evaluation, and treatment of ED, healthcare providers must be familiar with the most relevant literature.

Objective

Identify and analyze the literature most cited and influential in the field of ED using two separate metrics: Web of Science (WoS) citations and Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS), a novel metric that captures online attention received by academic works.

Methods

A comprehensive literature search was carried out using WoS and Altmetric Explorer. The top 100 papers from WoS and the top 100 papers from Altmetric were confirmed by two urology researchers after excluding basic science and papers whose primary research focus was not evaluation or treatment of ED. Extracted data included citations, authors, publication journals, language, study design, country, publication year, and specific themes related to ED. AAS were calculated using a weighted algorithm that considers various types of attention, such as mentions in news and social media.

Results

Of the 33,683 publications identified via WoS, the 100 most cited papers analyzed. The most cited article was “The international index of erectile function (IIEF): A multidimensional scale for assessment of erectile dysfunction” by Rosen et al. (1997) with 3,930 citations. The top three most reference journals were the Journal of Urology, European Urology, and the International Journal of Impotence, with 15, 12, and 9 contributions, respectively. However, the Journal of Urology had the highest number of citations (9,268), followed by Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) (8,117) and Urology Gold Journal (6,632) though they both appear on the list just 7 times. Studies focused on epidemiology dominated (42%), with treatment (36%), and evaluation (22%) following. From Altmetric Explorer, 3,722 publications were identified, with the top 100 analyzed. The article “Mask up to keep it up: Preliminary evidence of the association between erectile dysfunction and COVID-19” by Akpunonu et al. was the top paper with an AAS of 4387 and 71 dimension citations. The median of citations within the top 100 cited papers was 121.5 (IQR 79.8/299.3) and the mean was 307.1 (SD = 535.1). Interestingly 3 of the top four articles by AAS discussed ED in the context of COVID-19. These articles also had the highest number of Twitter mentions. The top three most referenced journals were the Journal of Sexual Medicine, Sexual Medicine Reviews, and the International Journal of Impotence Research, with 10, 6, and 5 contributions, respectively.

Conclusions

Our results provide an understanding of influential literature on ED by leveraging WoS for historical academic trends while Altmetric score provides a more recent, up-to-date evaluation of which academic works are generating attention online. The role of the recent COVID-19 pandemic remains prevalent in public discussion and Altmetric could serve as a tool for providers to stay informed regarding what patients and the public are being exposed to online.

Disclosure

No.