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I read with great interest the article by Stern and Arndt¹ about top cited authors in dermatology. In my opinion, however, the impact of a given single medical article should be expressly distinguished from the global productivity of the author and/or group and/or institution and measured by its true influence on the science and practice of dermatology. It is evident that, if an author publishes, say, 1 million articles a year, some among these will be necessarily cited as a result of a "mass effect." It is reasonable to believe that such a mass effect is heavily influenced by financial and editorial power, as well as by personal acquaintances and introductions, unless we uncritically affirm that "important authors publish a great deal because they are the best authors, and they are the best because they publish so much." As a result, such authors will be granted more funds, will publish . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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