AB086. 91. “Sleeping Beauties” in otolaryngology, ORL-HNS literature

Background: “Sleeping Beauties” (SBs) are articles that receive little attention in the literature for many years after publication but suddenly “awaken” to greatly increased relevance. The SB phenomenon has generated much discussion in recent years, with studies undertaken to identify SBs in the wider scientific literature (physics, chemistry, etc.) as well as certain medical sub-specialities. Our effort represents the first attempt, to our knowledge, at identifying SBs within the Otolaryngology literature.

Methods: We use Ke et al.’s methodology to calculate a “Beauty Coefficient” (B) indicating a given paper’s resemblance to the prototypical SB based on time in years between publication and the year maximum citations were received, number of citations in each interim year, and the maximum citations received in a single year. We apply an a priori constraint that a paper should average fewer than 1 annual citation in its first 10 years of existence in order to be considered a SB. This approach was applied to 80,532 Otolaryngology papers identified in the Web of Science database spanning 1945–2007.

Results: Results and Discussion: SBs were ranked based on B within 3 categories: overall, clinically significant (papers with greater than 100 total citations), and modern SBs (1988 and later). In general, papers spanned a wide array of topics within the Otolaryngology literature, though 9 of the top 20 clinically significant papers and 6 of the top 10 modern-era SBs dealt with Otology.

Conclusions: We identified several trends in the clinically impactful sleeping beauties. The most striking was the focus on inner ear physiology.

Keywords: Bibliometrics; otolaryngology, head & neck surgery (ORL-HNS); sleeping-beauties