Analyze This: High-Impact Research in Psychiatry

Analyze This: High-Impact Research in Psychiatry

or the period 1990 to 1998, Science Watch identified the 200 most-cited papers of each year published in ISI-indexed journals of psychiatry, with citations tallied through June of 1999. Papers published in the multidisciplinary journals Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA were also considered–although it should be mentioned that psychiatry papers appearing in general medical journals, such as The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet, were not included in this analysis.

Journals Publishing High-Impact Research
in Psychiatry, 1990-98
(Ranked by number of high-impact papers, among those that published ł10) n papers = 1,800

Rank	Journal	# of high-impact papers
1	Archives Gen. Psychiatry	469
2	Am. J. Psychiatry	462
3	Brit. J. Psychiatry	184
4	J. Clinical Psychiatry	148
5	J. Am. Acad. Child/Adol Psy.	118
6	Schizophrenia Bulletin	84
7	Psychological Medicine	62
8	J. Child Psychol./Psychiat.	40
9	Psychosomatic Medicine	34
10	J. Affective Disorders	26
11	Acta Psychiat. Scandinavica	25
12	Schizophrenia Research	23
13	J. Nerv. Mental Disease	15
14	Psychiatry Research	13
15	Hospital & Community Psych.	10
16	Psychiatric Services	10

SOURCE: ISI's High-Impact Papers, 1990-June 1998

From the resulting list of 1,800 papers, Science Watch identified the institutions, researchers, and journals responsible for the most significant portions of highly cited reports. Institutions that fielded at least 10 high-impact papers during the nine-year period appear in two separate listings in the table on the next page, ranked in the left-hand column by total citations and in the right by impact (citations per paper). Authors who published at least 15 high-impact papers are ranked on page 2 according to number of highly cited papers published, with the subsequent order determined by total citations. On this page is a table that ranks the journals in which the greatest numbers of highly cited psychiatry papers appeared.

Among institutions ranked highly by the total-citations measure, Harvard Harvard and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) stand far above the rest. Both also ranked highest in terms of the number of high-impact papers published. In fact, when ranked by number of papers, the top four finishers in the total-citations column fall into an identifical sequence: Harvard (154 high-impact papers), NIMH (138), Yale (125), and Columbia (111). In the right-hand column, meanwhile, several institutions exhibited superior performance according to impact with far fewer papers. The Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry, Munich, Germany, for example, fielded just 23 papers, Yale but each was cited an average of roughly 114 times. The Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, made second place by virtue of just 10 high-impact papers.

Given that many of the individual researchers list several affiliations at universities and at associated health-care facilities, it should be noted that there are instances of overlap in the institutional rankings–cases in which papers were credited to more than one institution. This is particularly true of the following: Harvard and its allied institutions, Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital; Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute; and Yale University and the Connecticut Mental Health Center. Similarly, figures for the Long Island Jewish Medical Center also reflect research from its affiliated institutions, including Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, and (in some instances) the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York. Columbia University

Among top researchers, Ronald C. Kessler of Harvard captures the number one spot with 31 high-impact papers published during the nine-year period. One of these papers, in fact, from 1994 (when Kessler was affiliated with the University of Michigan), is the most-cited paper in the survey: "Lifetime and 12-month prevalance of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in the United States: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey," (Arch. Gen. Psychiat., 51:8, 1994), now cited more than 1,200 times. Among the coauthors of that report is the second of the featured researchers, Kenneth S. Kendler of Virginia Commonwealth University. Kendler is joined on the list by two colleagues from VCU's Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics: Lindon J. Eaves and Michael C. Neale. Yale University and NIMH also register strongly on the list, each fielding three names.

On the following page see the tables: "Authors of High-Impact Papers in Psychiatry, 1990-98" and "Institutions Ranked by Citations and Citation Impact"