Omer YAVUZ, Mehlika ISCAN, Eren ERDOGDU, Reyhan ERTAN, Muhammet KERTMEN, Turkan DUBUS, Ali YEGINSU
Current Thoracic Surgery - 2026;11(1):23-36
Background: Scientific studies with comparable methodological quality may not achieve similar levels of publication visibility. This study aimed to assess whether publication visibility in the thoracic surgery literature varies across institutional and geographic contexts, using primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) as a homogeneous clinical framework. Materials and Methods: This descriptive bibliometric analysis included PSP-related publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection between January 1, 2000, and October 15, 2025. In total, 972 publications were analyzed. Author name origin and gender were inferred using the NamSor API (version 2). Author and institutional country income levels were classified according to World Bank definitions as high-income (HIC) or low- and middle-income (LMIC). Journal impact factor and quartile (Q1-Q4) rankings were obtained from the most recent Journal Citation Reports. Results: Based on name origin, 73.9% of first authors were from high-income countries (HICs), while 26.1% were from low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). According to institutional affiliation, 83.4% of publications originated from HIC institutions and 16.6% from LMIC institutions. Overall, 95.2% of publications were published in journals based in HICs. Studies led by authors from high-income countries were associated with publication in higher-impact and higher-quartile journals (p < 0.001). Gender distribution was comparable across groups, and variations in impact factor were more strongly associated with institutional income level than with gender. Conclusions: Despite comparable methodological characteristics, publications led by authors and institutions from high-income countries demonstrated greater publication visibility in the PSP literature. Greater transparency in editorial processes may help improve equity in research dissemination.
