Background Orthopedic surgery remains one of the most competitive specialties. Osteopathic candidates have recently matched at lower rates than allopathic students. One disparity that may exist is research, which has become a critical component of candidate applications. This study aimed to examine the representation of osteopathic-affiliated first authors, senior authors, and overall osteopathic-affiliated authors, in the top 25 leading U.S. orthopedic journals published between 2000 and 2024. Methods A retrospective bibliometric review was conducted on articles published from 2000 to 2024 in orthopedic journals. Journals were selected based on their h-index score. Institutional affiliations were used to identify osteopathic authors. Articles with a majority of authors from foreign institutions were excluded. T-tests and chi-squared tests were used to assess continuous and categorical variables. Multivariate regression identified factors influencing osteopathic authorship. Results 958 articles included osteopathic authors. 570 out of 958 articles with osteopathic authors were published after the AOA-ACGME merger. Senior osteopathic authorship significantly increased the osteopathic author makeup of articles, with the average number of osteopathic authors per article increasing from 0.02 to 2.93 (p