fter the previous issue's broad survey of research in
clinical medicine for the years 1981 to 1998 (10[3]:1-2, May/June 1999), Science Watch now
zooms in to examine recent research in a single medical subfield: cardiovascular medicine.
As a first step, Science Watch selected the 200 most-cited papers of each year that
were published in ISI-indexed journals of cardiovascular medicine between 1993 and 1997
(citations were tallied for these papers through 1998). Additionally, papers dealing with
cardiovascular research that were published during 1993 to 1997 in general journals of
medicine, such as The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, as
well as in the multidisciplinary journals Science, Nature, and Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, were also considered: if a paper in
one of these titles met the same citation threshold as the papers of each year published
in the cardiovascular research journals, it was included in the analysis.
Authors of High-Impact Papers
in Cardiovascular Research, 1993-97
(ranked by number of high-impact papers) |
| Rank |
|
|
No.
of
high-impact
papers |
Citations |
Citations
per high-impact
paper |
| 1 |
Eric J. Topol |
Cleveland Clinic Foundation |
17 |
2,157 |
126.8 |
| 2 |
Robert M. Califf |
Duke University |
14 |
1,483 |
105.9 |
| 3 |
Charles H. Hennekens |
Harvard University |
11 |
2,277 |
207.0 |
| 4 |
Valentin Fuster |
Mt. Sinai Medical Ctr. |
11 |
1,120 |
101.8 |
| 5 |
Meir J. Stampfer |
Harvard University |
10 |
2,502 |
250.2 |
| 6 |
Michael R. Bristow |
U. Colorado Health Sci. Ctr. |
10 |
1,416 |
141.6 |
| 7 |
Martin B. Leon |
Washington Hospital Ctr. |
9 |
1,761 |
195.7 |
| 8 |
Curt D. Furberg |
Wake Forest Medical Ctr. |
9 |
1,646 |
182.9 |
| 9 |
Antonio Colombo |
Columbus Hospital, Milan |
8 |
2,672 |
334.0 |
| 10 |
Frits R. Rosendaal |
Leiden University Hospital |
8 |
2,644 |
330.5 |
| 11 |
Paul M. Ridker |
Brigham & Women’s
Hospital |
8 |
1,309 |
163.6 |
| 12 |
Edward M. Gilbert |
University of Utah |
7 |
1,157 |
165.3 |
| 13 |
Stephen G. Ellis |
Cleveland Clinic Foundation |
7 |
1,051 |
150.1 |
| 14 |
Arshed A. Quyyumi |
Natl. Heart Lung & Blood
Inst. |
7 |
855 |
122.1 |
| 15 |
Peter Ganz |
Brigham & Women’s
Hospital |
7 |
793 |
113.3 |
| 16 |
Neil S. Kleiman |
Baylor College of Medicin |
7 |
604 |
86.3 |
| 17 |
Helmut Drexler |
Hannover Medical University |
7 |
564 |
80.6 |
| 18 |
Jeffrey J. Popma |
Brigham & Women's
Hospital |
7 |
484 |
69.1 |
| SOURCE: ISI's High-Impact Papers in Cardiovascular Research, 1993-98 |
From the resulting selection of 687 "high-impact"
papers, Science Watch evaluated the institutions, authors, and journals that were
most frequently represented. Of institutions ( 
view the following page: "Institutions Ranked by Citations and Citation
Impact," ) that produced at least 10 high-impact papers during the five-year
period, the top 25 are featured on the following page
in two separate rankings: at left, institutions are ranked by total citations to their
high-impact papers; at right, the same institutions are ranked by impact (that is,
citations per high-impact paper). Authors who contributed to at
least seven high-impact papers over the five-year period appear in the table above (ranked
by number of high-impact papers, with the subsequent order determined by total citations),
along with a table containing the journals that published the
greatest number of highly cited reports in the survey.
Journals Publishing High-Impact
Cardiovascular Research, 1993-97
(Ranked by number of
high-impact papers,
among those that published ³ 10) n papers= 687)
| Rank |
Journal |
# of high-
impact
papers |
| 1 |
Circulation |
258 |
| 2 |
Circulation
Research |
92 |
| 3 |
NEJM |
75 |
| 4 |
J.
Am. Coll. Cardiology |
46 |
| 5 |
The
Lancet |
41 |
| 6 |
PNAS |
28 |
| 7 |
Nature |
16 |
| 8 |
Science |
13 |
| 9 |
American
J. Cardiology |
13 |
| 10 |
JAMA |
12 |
| 11 |
Arter.
Thromb./Vasc. Biol. |
12 |
| 12 |
J.
Thoracic Surgery |
10 |
| 13 |
Annals
Thoracic Surgery |
10 |
| SOURCE: ISI's High-Impact Papers, 1993-98 |
|
In the total-citations column, Harvard
University took top honors, with over 10,000 collective citations to its 66 high-impact
reports. Harvard authors also accounted for the greatest number of hot cardiovascular
papers of any institution here. Indeed, Harvard researchers had a hand in nearly 10% of
the 687 high-impact papers in this survey. Holding the #2 spot in the total-citations
ranking was Brigham & Women's Hospital, which accounted for 51 papers. Some 40 papers
featured authors at both Harvard and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
In the impact column, Leiden University
Hospital, in the Netherlands, captured the top spot. Only 10 papers of the 687 listed
Leiden researchers among their authors, but these papers were cited, on average, 276
times. The most-cited paper in the survey, in fact, was written exclusively by Leiden
authors: R.M. Bertina, et al., "Mutation in blood coagulation factor V
associated with resistance to activated protein C," Nature, 369(6475):64-7,
1994, cited 962 times. (Resistance to activated protein C has been associated with deep
vein thrombosis.) Among the coauthors was Frits R. Rosendaal who, thanks to that paper and
seven additional high-impact reports, is featured at #10 in the table above.
Just behind the Bertina paper, with 959
citations through 1998, was a 1994 paper from the New England Journal of Medicine:
P.W. Serruys, et al., "A comparison of balloon-expandable stent implantation
with balloon angioplasty in patients with coronary artery disease," New Engl. J.
Med., 331(8):489-95, 1994. NEJM also scored with the third-most-cited report:
J. Shepherd, et al., "Prevention of coronary heart disease with pravastatin in
men with hypercholesterolemia," New Engl. J. Med., 333(20):1301-7, 1995, with 877
citations.
Of the authors above, several appeared in the
previous issue's 1981-98 survey, including the name at the top of the list, Eric J. Topol
of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, who coauthored 17 high-impact reports between 1993 and
1997. Others on the current list who also appeared last time are Robert M. Califf,
Valentin Fuster, Charles H. Hennekens, and Meir J. Stampfer.
View the
following page: "Institutions Ranked by Citations
and Citation Impact,"
.
