The top cited articles in occupational therapy: a citation analysis study.

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify and review the most cited articles in the occupational therapy field. Methods: Using the multi-disciplinary Publish or Perish software to extract data, the top 50 lifetime and annual cited articles were examined. Studies were organized according to the following: year of publication, design, topic, number of authors, country of publication, and number of citations for each cohort. Results: We found that randomized control trials were the dominant design type used in papers with the most lifetime (36.0%) and annual (26.0%) citations. Additionally, in both groups, the most frequently cited articles investigated predictors of functional outcome for patients. Conclusions: This comprehensive citation analysis will inform future research through its identification of major trends and well-established areas of study.