A bibliometric analysis of occupational therapy publications

Background: Bibliometrics involves the statistical analysis of the publications in a specific discipline or subject area. A bibliometric analysis of the occupational therapy refereed literature is needed.

Aim: A bibliometric analysis was completed of the occupational therapy literature from 1991-2014, indexed in the Science Citation Index-Expanded or the Social Sciences Citation Index.

Method: Publications were searched by title, abstract, keywords, and KeyWords Plus. Total number of article citations, citations per journal, and contributions per country, individual authors, and institution were calculated.

Results: 5,315 occupational therapy articles were published in 821 journals. It appears that there is a citation window of an approximate 10-year period between the time of publication and the peak number of citations an article receives. The top three most highly cited articles were published in Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, JAMA, and Lancet. AJOT, BJOT and AOTJ published the largest number of occupational therapy articles with the United States, Australia, and Canada producing the highest number of publications. McMaster University, the University of Queensland, and the University of Toronto were the institutions that published the largest number of occupational therapy journal articles.

Conclusion: The occupational therapy literature is growing and the frequency of article citation is increasing.