On 2-11-2024 I looked up in the Scopus citation database (www.scopus.com) how often my articles, which were published in English-language journals, were mentioned (cited) by other authors in their publications. I found data for 135 of the 145 articles that have been published up to that date. I did not include the 6 most recent of these, which were published this year (2024), in the research, because the period after that is very short for citations. Nevertheless, the review article ‘Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA): a clinical review of contact allergy and allergic contact dermatitis. Part 2’, which appeared in the January 2024 issue of Contact Dermatitis, already had 13 citations in November, which can certainly be called quite an achievement. I could not find any data for the other 10 articles in English-language journals in Scopus.

In total, the 129 articles in this study have been cited 4554 times. This gives a citation index (the number of citations divided by the number of articles) of 35.3 (4554:129). In other words, on average, each publication has led to more than 35 citations in other scientific articles. I can say without any reservation that this is a very high figure: my articles are apparently (at least in their totality) highly appreciated. In particular, several of my recent review articles are also in the top of most read articles, such as those on Myroxylon pereirae resin (Peru balsam), systemic allergic dermatitis, DRESS and AGEP.

The number of citations per article is listed in the table. These range from 0 (fortunately only 1 time) to 261. The average is 35.3 and the median is 20: half of the articles were cited 20 times or less frequently and the other half 20 times or more. Seventeen articles scored between 30 and 50 citations, 19 between 51 and 100, and 8 above 100, with the highest number being 261. The publication with 261 citations concerns a review article from 1997 on side effects of perfume raw materials (fragrances) that I wrote together with Prof. Dr. Peter Frosch from Heidelberg. At the time, with 30 pages, it was the largest article ever published in Contact Dermatitis.

Tabel. Number of times that my articles have been cited, per publication

Peruvian balsam is obtained from the bark of the tree Myroxylon pereirae, which grows mainly in El Salvador

That record of 30 pages was broken (also by me) in 2022 with the article ‘Patch testing in drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS): a literature review’, which counted 37 pages. Also meritorious (in terms of size) were the overview articles on HEMA (33 pages), AGEP (n=23), allergy to henna tattoos (n=25), propolis (20) and formaldehyde (part 1) (23). And soon there will be another new article (already split into 2 parts because of its size) about allergy to glucose sensors and insulin pumps. I don’t know yet how many pages that will be, but it is so much that some of the data will be published online as ‘Supporting information’ (so not in the article itself), otherwise the largest of the 2 would have come to 40 pages! ‘My colleague De Groot is a man of many (written) words’, wrote Auguste Glastra in response to the Leo Dermatology Award, which I won in 2000, and nothing has changed in that respect: I tend towards verbosity and a desire for completeness. Incidentally, I expect that this will be my last major review article. I worked on those 2 on glucose sensors and insulin pumps for more than 3 months, and to be honest, I was fed up with it now and then …….

Recently, Prof. Dr. Jeanne Duus Johansen from Copenhagen, the editor-in-chief of Contact Dermatitis (an English-language journal specializing in contact allergy and eczema and the official organ of the European Society of Contact Dermatitis; by far most of my international articles have appeared in this journal) told me that my review articles are among the top 10 most cited articles every year. She kindly requested me (therefore) not to retire for the time being! By the way, she had previously had the good taste to call me 'legendary' in a book review because of my books and my review articles. Nice person, that's for sure.

De Top-10 most cited article are shown below. You can find the complete list here. 

Top-10 Lijst van artikelen met aantallen citaties (Scopus)

Citaties    Artikel

261          De Groot AC, Frosch PJ. Adverse reactions to fragrances. A clinical review. Contact Dermatitis 1997;36:57-86

189          De Groot AC, Bruijnzeel DP, Bos JD, van der Meeren HLM, van Joost Th, Jagtman BA, Weijland JW. The allergens                   in cosmetics. Arch Dermatol 1988;124:1525-1529

168          De Groot AC. Propolis: a review of properties, applications, chemical composition, contact allergy, and other                       adverse effects. Dermatitis 2013;24:263-282

149          De Groot AC, Flyvholm M-A, Lensen GJ, Menné T, Coenraads PJ. Formaldehyde releasers: relationship to                               formaldehyde contact allergy. I. Contact allergy to formaldehyde and inventory of formaldehyde-releasers.                           Contact Dermatitis 2009;61:63-85

140          De Groot AC. Contact allergy to cosmetics: causative ingredients. Contact Dermatitis 1987;17:26-34

129          De Groot AC. Side-effects of henna and semi-permanent ‘black henna’ tattoos: a full review. Contact Dermatitis                   2013;69:1-25

128          De Groot AC, Schmidt E. Tea tree oil: contact allergy and chemical composition. Contact Dermatitis                                         2016;75:129-143

105          De Groot AC, Liem DH, Nater JP, van Ketel WG. Patch tests with fragrance materials and preservatives. Contact                     Dermatitis 1985;12:87-92

93            De Groot AC, Weijland JW. Kathon CG: A review. J Am Acad Dermatol 1988;18:350-358

90            De Groot AC, Nater JP, van der Lende R, Rijcken B. Adverse effects of cosmetics and toiletries: a retrospective                      study in the general population. Int J Cosm Science 1988;9:255-259

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