Citation impact and reach of the IOC sport and exercise medicine consensus statements.

Background: Research evidence is commonly compiled into expert-agreed consensus statements or guidelines, with an increasing trend towards their publication in peer-reviewed journals. Prominent among these has been the publication of several International Olympic Committee (IOC) tatements to help inform sport and exercise medicine (SEM) practice. This study aimed to assess the citation impact and reach of the IOC statements published between 2003 and 2020.
Method: Bibliometric analysis focused on identifying core publications (original statement and linked publications) and quantifying their academic citations (number and Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI)) in journal articles up to February 2022. The analysis includes descriptive data on the country of IOC statement authorship affiliations, where they were published and by whom. The extent to which the IOC statements have been cited in the peer-reviewed literature is presented, together with information about the country of authorship of the citing papers as a measure of international academic reach.
Results: 29 IOC statements were composed of 61 core publications. The IOC statements have had 9535 citations from 7863 citing publications. Individual FWCI ranged from 1.2 to 24.3 for core publications. The IOC statements were coauthored by multiple authors, mostly affiliated to countries with well-resourced SEM Authors of citing publications reflected the same geographical regions (ie, the USA, Canada, Australia, UK and western Europe.).
Conclusion: Disseminating the IOC statements as open access papers in peer-reviewed journals has resulted in strong citation impact. However, this impact is centred on well-resourced academic circles that may not represent the diversity of SEM. Further research is required to identify if, and to what extent, the IOC statements have impacted SEM practice worldwide.
Competing Interests: Competing interests: Several authors have been contributors to the published IOC statements reviewed in this paper. CE, CFF, EV, MS and WD all coauthored the injury and illness surveillance statement. CE coauthored the following statements: concussion and the developing youth athlete. WD coauthored the following statements: pain management in the elite athlete. WD and MS both coauthored the following statements: molecular basis of connective tissue, muscle injuries in sport, prevention, and management of chronic disease. MS coauthored the following statements: periodic health evaluation of elite athletes, use of platelet-rich plasma in sports medicine, and health consequences of a saturated sports calendar (part 1 and part 2). Author EV is editor in chief of BMJSEM.
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