Most-Cited Journals in Agricultural Sciences, 1996-2006 (Ranked by citations to papers published and cited between 1996 and 2006) Rank Journal Citations 1 J. Agricultural & Food Chemistry 91,594 2 Journal of Nutrition 59,757 3 Journal of Dairy Science 35,578 4 Journal of Food Protection 25,096 5 Intl. J. Food Microbiology 21,613 6 British Journal of Nutrition 19,721 7 Crop Science 19,256 8 Journal of Food Science 18,788 9 Food Chemistry 17,000 10 J. Sci. Food & Agriculture 14,915 11 J. Amer. Oil Chemists Soc. 14,684 12 Meat Science 11,792 13 Food & Chemical Toxicology 11,666 14 J. AOAC International 11,410 15 International Dairy Journal 10,145 SOURCE: Thomson Scientific Essential Science Indicators

These figures derive from Thomson Scientific’s Essential Science Indicators and are based on papers published in 118 Thomson-indexed journals of agricultural sciences  between January 1996 and February 2006 and cited over the same period.

Among institutions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) clearly shows its clout, with a total-citations count nearly twice that of the #2-ranked institution, France’s INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique). Size is clearly an advantage here, with the USDA’s count of 6,600+ agricultural-sciences papers for the  decade more than doubling the INRA’s tally (again, the second highest) of 3,000 papers.

In the top five of the total-citations column, two institutions stand out: Wageningen University, in the Netherlands, and the University of California, Davis. In both cases, the output and impact of their agricultural-sciences research compares with that produced under the aegis of large national agencies, including not only the USDA and INRA but Spain’s CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas).

The measure of impact, meanwhile, as it often does, provides a slightly different picture. In this column, the University of Helsinki, despite a comparatively modest output of 667 ag-science papers between 1996 and 2006, scores the highest cites-per-paper mark of any institution in the survey. Ireland’s University College Cork similarly distinguishes itself, ranking in the top five for impact based on only 638 papers. Also notable for their appearances in the impact column are the University of Massachusetts (519 papers), Oregon State University (635), Rutgers University (551) and Washington State University (853). [Note: in the instances of identical impact scores, priority was determined by the average prior to rounding.]

A glance at the list of researchers demonstrates that, over the last decade, high-impact research in agricultural sciences has weighed heavily, as it were, toward food science and nutrition. Top-cited author Ronald L. Prior of the USDA, for example, contributed to three of the ten most-cited papers in this survey— along with his then-USDA colleague Guohua Cao. Their 1996 report "Total antioxidant capacity of fruits," (H. Wang, G.H. Cao, R.L. Prior, J. Agr. Chem., 44[3]: 701-5, 1996) is the second-most-cited paper in this study, with more than 360 citations. (Cao, incidentally, has since switched fields to computer science.) The survey’s most-cited paper is L. Bravo, "Polyphenols: Chemistry, dietary sources, metabolism, and nutritional significance," Nutr. Rev., 56(11): 317-33, 1998, with roughly 390 citations. Of the ten most-cited agricultural-sciences papers, in fact, all deal with aspects of nutrition and food science.

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