Characteristic Features of 100 Most Influential Studies in Evidence-Based Medicine: A Worldwide Bibliometric Analysis

Introduction: Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is important to improve healthcare decisions using the scientific method to establish and apply current data. Aim: This bibliometric analysis aimed to identify and characterize the top 100 most cited publications in EBM. Methods: The Web of Science Core Collection database was searched using the search term “Evidence-based medicine OR Evidence based medicine OR EBM” in the title field. The top 100 most cited publications were selected based on the number of citations. The included publications were then exported into HistCiteTM and VOSviewer for further analysis. Results: The initial search yielded a total of 4,556 publications. Out of these, the 100 most influential publications were authored by 344 authors published in 54 journals from 1992 to 2019. The global citation score (GCS) ranged from 101 to 7078 citations, with total citations of 31594. A total of 214 institutions and 23 countries were involved. The most frequent year of publication was 2004. The most prolific author in EBM was Sackett DL. The McMaster University was the leading institute, while the most influential and highly contributing country was the United States of America (USA). The BMJ was the most attractive journal. Conclusions: Researchers of developed countries were actively involved in EBM most cited papers. This study could serve as a standard benchmark for bibliographic information and future research trends and funding in EBM research.