Trends in Contemporary Orthodontic Research Publications: Evaluation of Three Major Orthodontic Journals

Background In this study, we aimed to evaluate the inclination of orthodontic research published in original articles in three of the most popular and recognized orthodontic journals with high impact factor; American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (AJODO), the Angle Orthodontist (AO), and European Journal of Orthodontics (EJO) published in a 5-year duration time frame (2010–2014). Materials and Methods Online search with supplementary hand searching was undertaken for original research articles in these three orthodontic journals from 2010 to 2014. Classification of data was completed autonomously by manual and direct appraisal of the manuscript of each journal. Results and Conclusion Three thousand one hundred and forty articles published in AJODO, AO, and EJO in the particular time period were selected, out of which 1783 original research study articles (56.78%) were appraised for classification in their various respective knowledge domains. AO (82.73%) and EJO (76.99%) were relatively more committed toward publication of research work in comparison to AJODO (34.55%). Research articles based on perception and questionnaires (12%), temporary anchorage devices (11%), cone-beam computed tomography (8%), invisible orthodontics (lingual orthodontics, clear aligners, esthetic brackets, and wires) (5%), and airway examination (5%) were the five most recurrently selected subjects of interest (41%) in these three journals during the observation period. The total number of research articles published in the three journals reduced statistically significantly in 2014 when compared to 2010.