(269) A Bibliometric Analysis of the Most Cited Articles in Pharmacy Education

Objective : The objective of this research is to examine the changing landscape of pharmacy education over the past 40 years by analyzing trends in the most cited literature in this field.

Methods: A systematic database search was conducted in the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection from January 1980 to December 2019, focusing on relevant pharmacy education journals. The study period was divided into 2-year intervals, and the top 10 most cited articles within each period were selected, resulting in a final dataset of 200 articles. To analyze differences in publication trends over time, manuscripts were divided into a pre-millennial from 1980 to 1999 and post-millennial periods from 2000 to 2019.

Results: Over the years, there has been a notable increase in the number of female authors in pharmacy education (33/100 first authors in pre-millennial vs. 51/100 in the post-millennial period, P=0.04). The southwest region in the United States emerged as the most prolific in publishing highly cited pharmacy education articles, while the northeast region doubled its publication rates in this study periods. Highly cited publications related to pharmacy education and curriculum development, as well as the role of the pharmacist, were more prevalent before 2000. After 2000, there was a shift towards publications relating to professionalism/ethical considerations and teaching and learning methods in pharmacy education, which had higher citation rates.

Conclusions: This research highlights influential themes and productive regions within the field of pharmacy education. This analysis provides insights into the areas that have been researched most intensively and how research interests have evolved over time.