The Hottest Research of 2004-05

The Hottest Research of 2004-05

by Christopher King

cience Watch once again presents its annual roundup of the hottest of recent research. In the first table below, are the scientists who, as of late 2005, had published the greatest number of Hot Papers over the preceding two years. In the second table are the papers published in 2005 (excluding reviews) that were most cited by year’s end.

Among the researchers, none surpassed Shizuo Akira and the 11 Hot Papers to which he’s contributed in the last two years. These reports examine various aspects of toll-like receptors and their role in immune-system function. Two of Akira’s Hot Papers currently rank at #4 and #9 in the Biology section of this issue.

Not far behind Akira is Marc A. Pfeffer, with 8 Hot Papers on statins and other topics in cardiovascular research. (Note: the authors within each tier are ranked according to their average cites per Hot Paper.) Pfeffer, who’s interviewed in this issue, has two Hot Papers in the current Medicine Top Ten (#3, #9)—both of them including another featured author, Eugene Braunwald. Pfeffer and Braunwald also contributed to the paper ranked at #1 for 2005.

The other biomedical standouts are Peer Bork (analysis of genome-sequence data), Vincent A. Miller (gefitinib in cancer therapy), and Matthew Berriman (microbial genomes).

The remaining authors specialize in physical-science areas and primarily represent large, multiauthor collaborations. These authors, however, have displayed a knack for contributing to particularly high-impact collaborations—and, in many instances, to more than one. Although space prevents detailing all the assorted coauthorship and cross alliances evinced in their Hot Papers, the main groupings include the Belle B-meson and Super-Kamiokande neutrino-detection collaborations (Tamura, Ganezer, Watanabe, Choi, Eidelman, Hazumi, Iijima, Katayama, Okabe) and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration (Frey, Strom, Brau, Frolov, Ganezer again). Thomas Nash has juggled LIGO activities with participation in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey; he’s included on a couple of the hot space-science papers also featuring Max Tegmark.

Among 2005’s most-cited reports, the New England Journal of Medicine achieves distinction with four of the year’s top-five papers, and 13 overall.

Scientists with Multiple Hot Papers
Name	Institution	Field	Number of Hot Papers
Shizuo Akira [see also \| see also \| see also]	Osaka University	Immunology	11
Marc A. Pfeffer [see also]	Harvard University	Clinical Medicine	8
Norio Tamura	Niigata University	Physics	8
Peer Bork	EMBL, Heidelberg	Bioinformatics	7
Thomas Nash	Fermilab	Physics	7
Kenneth S. Ganezer	California State U.	Physics	7
Yasushi Watanabe	Tokyo Inst. of Technology	Physics	7
Young-Il Choi	Sungkyunkwan U., Korea	Physics	7
Raymond Frey	University of Oregon	Physics	7
David Strom	University of Oregon	Physics	7
James E. Brau	University of Oregon	Physics	7
Simon Eidelman	Budker Inst. Nuclear Physics, Russia	Physics	6
Vincent A. Miller	Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Ctr.	Clinical Medicine	6
Eugene Braunwald	Harvard University	Clinical Medicine	6
Max Tegmark	MIT	Space Science	6
Valery Frolov	Caltech	Physics	6
Matthew Berriman	Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute	Genomics	6
Masashi Hazumi	KEK, Japan	Physics	6
Toru Iijima	Nagoya University	Physics	6
Nobuhiko Katayama	KEK, Japan	Physics	6
Takeshi Okabe	Nagoya University	Physics	6
SOURCE: Thomson Scientific Hot Papers Database.

The Red-Hot Research Papers of 2005
Rank	Paper	Citations
1	P.M. Ridker, et al., "C-reactive protein levels and outcomes after statin therapy," New Engl. J. Med., 352(1): 20-8, 6 January 2005.	124
2	G.H. Bardy, et al., "Amiodarone or an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator for congestive heart failure," New Engl. J. Med., 352(3): 225-37, 20 January 2005.	107
3	S.D. Solomon, et al., "Cardiovascular risk associated with celecoxib in a clinical trial for colorectal adenoma prevention," New Engl. J. Med., 352(11): 1071-80, 17 March 2005.	97
4	R.S. Bresalier, et al., "Cardiovascular events associated with rofecoxib in a colorectal adenoma chemoprevention trial," New Engl. J. Med., 352(11): 1092-1102, 17 March 2005.	93
5	J.C. Barrett, et al., "Haploview: analysis and visualization of LD and haplotype maps," Bioinformatics, 21(2): 263-5, 15 January 2005.	90
6	S.E. Nissen, et al., "Statin therapy, LDL cholesterol, C-reactive protein, and coronary artery disease," New Engl. J. Med., 352(1): 29-38, 6 January 2005.	82
7	D.A. Hinds, et al., "Whole-genome patterns of common DNA variation in three human populations," Science, 307(5712): 1072-9, 18 February 2005.	74
8	L.P. Lim, et al., "Microarray analysis shows that some microRNAs downregulate large numbers of target mRNAs," Nature, 433(7027): 769-73, 17 February 2005.	73
9	E.R. Miller, et al., "Meta-analysis: High-dosage vitamin E supplementation may increase all-cause mortality," Ann. Intern. Med., 142(1): 37-46, 4 January 2005.	73
10	A. Howell, et al., "Results of the ATAC (Arimidex, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination) trial after completion of 5 years’ adjuvant treatment for breast cancer," Lancet, 365(9453): 60-2, 1 January 2005.	69
11	J.C. LaRosa, et al., "Intensive lipid lowering with atorvastatin in patients with stable coronary disease," New Engl. J. Med., 352(14): 1425-35, 7 April 2005.	67
12	E.J. Baxter, et al., "Acquired mutation of the tyrosine kinase JAK2 in human myeloproliferative disorders," Lancet, 365(9464): 1054-61, 19 March 2005.	65
13	C. James, et al., "A unique clonal JAK2 mutation leading to constitutive signalling causes polycythaemia vera," Nature, 434(7037): 1144-8, 28 April 2005.	64
14	R. Kralovics, et al., "A gain-of-function mutation of JAK2 in myeloproliferative disorders," New Engl. J. Med., 352(17): 1779-90, 28 April 2005.	61
15	R.L. Levine, et al., "Activating mutation in the tyrosine kinase JAK2 in polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia, and myeloid metaplasia with myelofibrosis," Cancer Cell, 7(4): 387-97, April 2005.	60
16	N.A. Nussmeier, et al., "Complications of the COX-2 inhibitors parecoxib and valdecoxib after cardiac surgery," New Engl. J. Med., 352(11): 1081-91, 17 March 2005.	60
17	T. Araki, et al., "Measurement of neutrino oscillation with KamLAND: Evidence of spectral distortion," Phys. Rev. Lett., 94(8): 081801, 4 March 2005.	59
18	R.W. Snow, et al., *"The global distribution of clinical episodes of Plasmodium falciparum* malaria,"** Nature, 434(7030): 214-7, 10 March 2005.	58
19	K.S. Kobayashi, et al., "Nod2-dependent regulation of innate and adaptive immunity," Science, 307(5710): 731-4, 4 February 2005.	56
20	S. Kobayashi, et al., "EGFR mutation and resistance of non-small-cell lung cancer to gefitinib," New Engl. J. Med., 352(8): 786-92, 24 February 2005.	53
21	A. Bairoch, et al., "The universal protein resource (UniProt)," Nucl. Acids Res., 33: D154-9, 1 January 2005.	52
22	S. Maeda, et al., "Nod2 mutation in Crohn’s disease potentiates NF-kappaB activity and IL-1beta processing," Science, 307(5710): 734-8, 4 February 2005.	52
23	D.J. Graham, et al., "Risk of acute myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death in patients treated with cyclo-oxygenase 2 selective and non-selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: Nested case-control study," Lancet, 365(9458): 475-81, 5 February 2005.	50
24	A. Tsukazaki, et al., "Repeated temperature modulation epitaxy for p-type doping and light-emitting diode base on ZnO," Nature Materials, 4(1): 42-6, January 2005.	50
25	J.G.F. Cleland, et al., "The effect of cardiac resynchronization on morbidity and mortality in heart failure," New Engl. J. Med., 352(15): 1539-49, 14 April 2005.	48
26	X.H. Xie, et al., "Systematic discovery of regulatory motifs in human promoters and 3’ UTRs by comparison of several mammals," Nature, 434(7031): 338-45, 17 March 2005.	48
27	D.D. Sarbassov, et al., "Phosphorylation and regulation of Akt/PKB by the rictor-mTOR complex," Science, 307(5712): 1098-1101, 18 February 2005.	46
28	A. Marchler-Bauer, et al., "CDD: a conserved domain database for protein classification," Nucl. Acids Res., 33: D192-6, 1 January 2005.	46
29	O. Abe, et al., "Effects of chemotherapy and hormonal therapy for early breast cancer on recurrence and 15-year survival: an overview of the randomized trials," Lancet, 365(9472): 1687-1717, 14 May 2005.	45
30	P.M. Ridker, et al., "A randomized trial of low-dose aspirin in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in women," New Engl. J. Med., 352(13): 1293-1304, 31 March 2005.	45
31	R. Stupp, et al., "Radiotherapy plus concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide for glioblastoma," New Engl. J. Med., 352(10): 987-96, 10 March 2005.	45
32	K. Abazajian, et al., "The third data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey," Astronom. J., 129(3): 1755-9, March 2005.	45
33	H. Shigematsu, et al., "Clinical and biological features associated with epidermal growth factor receptor gene mutations in lung cancers," J. Natl. Cancer Inst., 97(5): 339-46, 2 March 2005.	43
34	S.A. Mayer, et al., "Recombinant activated factor VII for acute intracerebral hemorrhage," New Engl. J. Med., 352(8): 777-85, 24 February 2005.	42
35	A.T. Petkova, et al., "Self-propagating, molecular-level polymorphism in Alzheimer’s beta-amyloid fibrils," Science, 307(5707): 262-5, 14 January 2005.	42
36	K.D. Pruitt, et al., "NCBI Reference Sequence (RefSeq): a curated non-redundant sequence database of genomes, transcripts and proteins," Nucl. Acids Res., 33: D501-4, 1 January 2005.	42
37	J. Wunderlich, et al., "Experimental observation of the spin-Hall effect in a two-dimension spin-orbit coupled semiconductor system," Phys. Rev. Lett., 94(4): 047204, 4 February 2005.	41
38	W.P. Gilks, et al., "Common LRRK2 mutation in idiopathic Parkinson’s," Lancet, 365(9457): 415-6, 29 January 2005.	41
39	B.E. Bernstein, et al., "Genomic maps and comparative analysis of histone modifications in human and mouse," Cell, 120(2): 169-81, 28 January 2005.	40
40	W.C. Nichols, et al., "Genetic screening for a single common LRKK2 mutation in familial Parkinson’s disease," Lancet, 365(9457): 410-2, 29 January 2005.	40
SOURCE: Thomson Scientific Hot Papers Database.

Mr. Christopher King is the Editor of Science Watch^®.

From incites: also of interest are The Top 103 "Super Hot" Papers in Science Published Since 2003.

Science Watch^®, March/April 2006, Vol. 17, No. 2
Citing URL: http://www.sciencewatch.com/march-april2006/sw_march-april2006_page1.htm