What are the most disruptive publications in shoulder surgery?

Dear Colleagues:

A recent publication in Nature titled "'Disruptive' science has declined — and no one knows why" concluded that few publications disrupt the status quo:

Today, I am sharing an article with you which has been written by shoulder specialists. Here is the link to “What are the most disruptive publications in shoulder surgery?” This study reviewed almost 6,000 articles and analyzed the disruptive impact of this work using the Disruptive Index (DI), a validated bibliographic value which determines if a given research shifts attention away from publications (disruptive innovation) or builds upon them (consolidation). We observed that the mean Disruptive Index (DI) was 0.16 where 1.00 would be the highest DI. The top 25 articles are listed in this publication.

We conclude that “the trajectory of shoulder research and publications needs to move beyond established paradigms and toward paradigm shifting topics.” In my opinion, our relatively incremental or derivative research publications are a consequence of the publish or parish motivation in academics as well as the reality that these kinds of studies are very difficult to publish in mainstream academic journals. Take a look at the list of the 25 most disruptive articles and you may notice many are not published in the banner orthopedic and shoulder journals.

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Kind Regards,

Jon “JP” Warner MD

Founder, CSS