• Claudio V Sole, Felipe A Calvo, Carlos Ferrer, Javier Pascau, and Hugo Marsiglia.
• Service of Radiation Oncology, Instituto de Radiomedicina, Santiago, Chile.
• Strahlenther Onkol. 2014 Nov 1;190(12):1111-6.

PurposeTo analyze the performance and quality of intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) publications identified in medical databases during a recent period in terms of bibliographic metrics.Materials And MethodsA bibliometric search was conducted for IORT papers published in the PubMed database between 1997 and 2013. Publication rate was used as a quantity indicator; the 2012 Science Citation Index Impact Factor as a quality indicator. Furthermore, the publications were stratified in terms of study type, scientific topic reported, year of publication, tumor type and journal specialty. We performed a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine differences between the means of the analyzed groups.ResultsAmong the total of 207 journals, articles were reported significantly more frequently in surgery (n = 399, 41 %) and radiotherapy journals (n = 273, 28 %; p < 0.01). The highest impact factor was achieved by clinical oncology journals (p < 0.01). The majority of identified articles were retrospective cohort reports (n = 622, 64 %), followed by review articles (n = 204, 21 %; p < 0.001). Regarding primary topic, reports on cancer outcome following specific tumor therapy were most frequently published (n = 661, 68 %; p < 0.001) and gained the highest mean impact factor (p < 0.01). Gastrointestinal tumor reports were represented most frequently (n = 456, 47 %; p < 0.001) and the mean superior impact factor was earned by breast and gynecologic publications (p < 0.01).ConclusionWe identified a consistent and sustained scientific productivity of international IORT expert groups. Most publications appeared in journals with surgical and radiooncological content. The highest impact factor was achieved by medical oncology journals.

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