Abstract Background: Classic articles are defined as research papers with a total citation of one thousand or more. The present study is to identify and analyse the characteristics of the classic articles in apoptosis research. Method: Classic articles with total of 1,000 or more citations from Web of Science Core Collection since year of publication to the end of 2017 were basically assessed regarding their document types, languages, journals, and Web of Science categories within 1900 to 2017. Result: The study showed 418 classic documents in apoptotic research including 260 articles published between 1972 and 2012. The most productive Web of Science category was multidisciplinary sciences. Nature published most of these classic articles followed by Cell , and Science . The most productive country and institution were United States and Harvard University respectively. The author S.J. Korsmeyer from Harvard University was the most productive in apoptosis field and published 13 classic apoptosis articles while the author J.C Reed had more potential to publish classic apoptosis articles in future. The author J.C. Reed and V.A. Fadok had equal potential to publish the same number of classic articles as first- and corresponding-author. Article of Kerr et al. in 1972 was the most popular and cited apoptosis article. The most impact article in 2017 was article entitled “Tumor-associated B7-H1 promotes T-cell apoptosis: A potential mechanism of immune evasion” by Dong et al. in 2002. Conclusion: This study seems to identify the most industrious authors, institutions, and countries in the field of apoptosis research. It also tends to reveal the historical and discoveries related to the pathophysiology of apoptosis as well as the most impact publications on apoptosis studies.

中文翻译：

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细胞凋亡研究中的经典文章：文献计量分析

摘要背景：经典文章定义为总被引用超过一千的研究论文。本研究旨在鉴定和分析细胞凋亡研究中经典文章的特征。方法：从1900年至2017年，对Web of Science核心收藏自发表之年至2017年底共被引用1,000篇或更多的经典文章进行了基本评估，包括其文档类型，语言，期刊和Web of Science类别。这项研究显示了418项有关凋亡研究的经典文献，包括1972年至2012年之间发表的260篇文章。最具生产力的Web of Science类别是多学科科学。大自然发表了这些经典文章的大部分，其次是细胞和科学。生产力最高的国家和机构分别是美国和哈佛大学。哈佛大学的SJ Korsmeyer是细胞凋亡领域生产力最高的作家，发表了13篇经典的细胞凋亡文章，而JC Reed的作者将来有更大的潜力发表经典的细胞凋亡文章。作者JC Reed和VA Fadok具有与第一作者和通讯作者一样数量的经典文章发表潜力。Kerr等人的文章。1972年是最受欢迎和引用最多的细胞凋亡文章。Dong等人在2017年最具影响力的文章标题为“肿瘤相关的B7-H1促进T细胞凋亡：免疫逃逸的潜在机制”的文章。结论：这项研究似乎确定了细胞凋亡研究领域中最勤奋的作者，机构和国家。