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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Feb 18, 2026; 17(2): 113461
Published online Feb 18, 2026. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v17.i2.113461
Published online Feb 18, 2026. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v17.i2.113461
Barriers to orthopedic surgery research productivity in Saudi Arabia
Abdulrahman Alaseem, Sara Alhomaidhi, Shahad Aljudi, Waleed Albishi, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh 111472, Saudi Arabia
Author contributions: Alaseem A served as the study’s principal investigator, playing a key role in all phases, including study conceptualization, design, data collection, literature review, and manuscript revisions throughout the process; Alhomaidhi S, Aljudi S, and Albishi W contributed significantly to the development of research questions, study design, data analysis, manuscript drafting, referencing, and the final review of the manuscript; all authors have critically reviewed and approved the final draft and were responsible for the manuscript’s content and similarity index.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol and survey were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, No. 23/0949/IRB.
Informed consent statement: All participants provided informed consent for using their data in this study. Their participation was voluntary, and confidentiality was ensured by anonymizing all collected data.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement – checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement – checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The dataset is not publicly available due to participant confidentiality and institutional data protection policies.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sara Alhomaidhi, MD, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, King Saud University, King Abdallah Bin Abdul Aziz Road, Riyadh 111472, Saudi Arabia.
Received: August 26, 2025
Revised: October 5, 2025
Accepted: December 3, 2025
Published online: February 18, 2026
Processing time: 162 Days and 10.5 Hours
Revised: October 5, 2025
Accepted: December 3, 2025
Published online: February 18, 2026
Processing time: 162 Days and 10.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Research productivity among orthopedic surgeons in Saudi Arabia remains limited due to restricted research time, insufficient support staff, and a lack of formal research training. This cross-sectional study highlights the key barriers and motivations influencing research engagement across various practice levels. Addressing these institutional and educational gaps is essential to strengthening orthopedic research capacity and enhancing national academic output.