Most widely cited references
From 2003 to 2022, there were 58,708 co-cited references in studies related to CRS and NPs, and we screened 241 references using a co-citation count of ≥50 as the screening criterion.
We listed the top 10 most co-cited references (Supplementary table 5). The highest number of co-citations was published in Rhinology by Fokkens WJ et al., European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps 2012 (EPOS 2012) [20], with 1323 co-citations. In 2020, this article was updated and is now the European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps 2020 (EPOS 2020)[1], the most authoritative and complete guide in CRS. It provides a research base for researchers worldwide. Followed by articles published by Lund Valerie J et al. [21](n=459) and Van Zele T et al. [22] (n=428), both of which were published earlier, in 1993 and 2006. They illustrated the staging in rhinosinusitis and the differences in the cellular and media profiles of different types of CRS, respectively. These are both seminal studies in the research of CRS and NPs, focusing on the endophenotypic and immunological features of CRS. At the beginning of global scientific work, they showed the most fundamental elements of CRS to a wide range of scholars. The article with the fourth highest number of co-citations was published in 2016, the most recent of the top 10 co-cited references. Researchers analyzed IL-5, IFN-γ, IL-17A, TNF-α, IL-22, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, eosinophilic cationic protein, myeloperoxidase, TGF-β1, IgE, specific IgE and albumin in the patient tissue samples and classified the inflammatory endotype of CRS by immunomarkers[23]. This article generated discussion throughout the CRS and NPs fields about further refining the CRS immunophenotypic delineation and remained impactive worldwide.
The top 10 co-cited references had a profound impact on the fundamental research. Interestingly, these ten publications originated from only four journals, with the Journal Of Allergy And Clinical Immunology  (IF=14.29, Q1) accounting for 5. At the same time, Rhinology  (IF=6.634, Q1) published the two references with the highest number of co-citations. We constructed a co-cited reference relationship network with co-cited citations ≥ 50 times (Supplementary figure 4).