The Dental College of Georgia among top 10 globally in producing highly cited dental literature

A 2019 paper published in the Journal of Investigative and Clinical Dentistry identified The Dental College of Georgia as the eighth most productive dental institutions in the world in creating highly cited research publications in dentistry.

The paper, which used data from the Web of Science “dentistry, oral surgery and medicine” category, analyzed 3,666 articles published up to 2016 in peer reviewed dental journals that had received 100 or more citations.

Using a performance index that considers the number of first author publications and corresponding author contributions, 10 dental institutions around the world were identified as being the most productive. The Dental College of Georgia is among seven institutions in the United States that have published over 75 highly cited articles in dental research. DCG is cited as the Medical College of Georgia in the paper, which used the database up to 2016, when most of the papers by DCG were published.

The University of Bern in Switzerland was the top-ranked institution with 140 highly cited articles. Gothenburg University in Sweden (131) was second, followed by the University of Texas (122), University of Michigan (114), University of Gothenburg in Sweden (108), University of North Carolina (98), University of Washington (84), DCG (82), Harvard University (79) and State University of New York at Buffalo (77).

There were 43 authors from the United States and Europe recognized as being the most productive in highly cited articles, with each author producing at least 12 highly cited articles as either first author or corresponding author. Two authors, Dr. David Pashley and Dr. Franklin Tay, are faculty members at DCG.

“Drs. Pashley and Tay are true clinician scientists whose work has significantly improved dentin bonding and advanced our profession. We are grateful to have them as faculty,” said Dr. Carol Lefebvre, DCG dean.

Pashley, professor emeritus, Department of Oral Biology and Diagnostic Sciences, was the author with the highest potential to publish high-cited dental articles in the world. Tay, who works in the Department of Endodontics, was co-ranked with another endodontist from Loma Linda University as the fourth in productivity.

“Dr. Pashley’s research is focused on dentin bonding and dentin physiology,” Tay said. “I was recruited by him to come here to do research and teach. My research is focused on dentin bonding (previously), collagen mineralization and antimicrobial materials.”

Tay is proud of the work the DCG does overall and said the global recognition solidifies its status.

“The Dental College of Georgia is not only well known nationally, but internationally for her dental research,” Tay said. “Every year, the college attracts scholars from all over the world to come and spend time here at Augusta as international scholars and post-doctoral research scientists to do research with our faculty. It is through these international collaborations that Augusta University is known to the rest of the world.”