The Top 100 Cited Articles on Plantar Fasciitis: A Bibliometric Analysis

Plantar fasciitis is a common musculoskeletal complaint seen in clinical practice. The objective of this study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of the top 100 articles published on the topic of plantar fasciitis. The Web of Science platform was used to search for articles on plantar fasciitis published between 1975 and 2021. Articles were subsequently ranked from the most to least cited. The top 100 studies were analyzed and their characteristics described. A total of 1859 articles were identified. The most cited article was “A retrospective case-control injuries analysis of 2002 running” published by Taunton JE et al in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2002. This article had a total of 910 citations. The mean number of citations per article in the top 100 was 139.95 (range 83-910). The majority of articles were published between the years 2000 to 2009 (n = 56). The USA had the highest number of publications (n = 55), while ‘Foot and Ankle International’ was the journal with the most publications in the top 100 (n =10). Plantar fasciitis is a well-studied topic. Despite this, however, a significant interest in plantar fasciitis research remains among clinicians and researchers evident by the high number of recent studies published on this topic. It is anticipated that these more recent studies will become highly cited over time and as such, this bibliometric analysis should be continuously updated.