ArticleKnee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA2026
The impact of randomized controlled trials on the management of anterior shoulder instability: A bibliometric and altmetrics analysis.
Article in Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo perform a bibliometric and altmetric analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in anterior shoulder instability (ASI) management through a citation and altmetrics analysis.
methodsA complete search of MEDLINE, EMBASE and CENTRAL databases was conducted from inception to 17 July 2025 for RCTs assessing surgical management of ASI. Citation metrics were obtained from Clarivate Web of Science Database on 16 August 2025, and Altmetrics data were extracted from Altmetrics.com on 5 September 2025. Univariate regression models and a one-way analysis of variance were used to explore correlations between scholarly impact and various study characteristics.
resultsA total of 24 studies consisting of 1559 participants were included. Studies were published between 1999 and 2024. Eleven countries were represented, with most studies originating from Canada (n = 5). The average impact factor was 4.3 (range 0.3-5.4), and the median citation density was 4.90 citations per year (range 1.0-19.3). The average altmetrics attention score was 10.8 (range 1-25). The median scholarly composite score density (SCSD) was 6.75 mentions per year (range 0.05-24). Regression analysis demonstrated fair and significant correlation to the first author's H-index for both citation density (r = 0.44, p = 0.030) and SCSD (r = 0.41, p = 0.047). All other variables were non-significant but had high effect sizes. Risk of bias (RoB) scores were found to be fairly correlated with citation density (r = 0.43, p = 0.036).
conclusionsThe bibliometric and altmetric impact of RCTs assessing surgical management of ASI is wide and varied across many journals of variable impact factors. Despite high effect size, only the first author's H-index was correlated with higher citation and SCSD, while RoB score was fairly correlated with a higher citation density, posing the question of whether an author's preestablished reputation or the robustness of an RCTs' design to control for bias can have an impact on the dissemination of academic information. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V, expert opinion.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.