Last fall Science Watch
surveyed "high-impact" biomedical research in the 1990s and presented rankings
of top institutions and scientists based on a select group of 1,381 high-impact papers
(cited 300 times or more) published between 1990 and 1996 (see Science Watch, 8[5]:1-2, September/October 1997).
Leader by a long way is Bert Vogelstein, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
Investigator in oncology based at Johns Hopkins University who has so often been featured
in Science Watch's surveys of top people and papers. Vogelstein collected over
7,500 more citations than the next most-cited scientist, Salvador Moncada of University
College London, some of whose papers on nitric oxide rank among the most cited of the
decade. View the "50 Biomedicial Scientists, Ranked
by Total Citations," table.
In this issue, Science Watch focuses on superstar scientists in biology and
medicine, 1990 through June 1997. Instead of examining highly cited papers only, this
analysis surveyed all ISI-indexed biomedical papers during this period whether highly
cited or not cited at all. The 50 scientists featured
here are those whose papers published during this interval were most cited by June
1997. They are ranked by total citations. |
Vogelstein, Moncada, and 19 others on the above list were also
featured in last year's high-impact-paper survey, all having appeared as an author on at
least seven highly cited reports between 1990 and 1996. For other researchers who missed
the seven-paper threshold in the previous study, however, the total-citations measure in
this survey affords an opportunity to shine. Shining brightly at #5, with more than 11,000
citations to 328 papers, is Pierre Chambon of the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and
Cellular Biology, Strasbourg, France. Chambon discussed his work on nuclear receptors and
retinoid binding proteins in a 1994 interview in these pages (see Science Watch, 5[2]:1-2,
February 1994). Science Watch, in fact, has tapped several of these researchers
for interviews in years past, including Vogelstein (#1), Schlessinger (#4), Ullrich (#13),
Springer (#15), Seeburg (#17), Evans (#19), Hunter (#22), Willett (#27), Schreiber (#31),
Fauci (#33), Tjian (#43), and Ruoslahti (#50).
Meanwhile, two scientists who have not
previously been featured in Science Watch make a striking emergence among the
decade's top ten: Neal G. Copeland (#9) and Nancy A. Jenkins (#10), colleagues in the
Mammalian Genetics Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Frederick, Maryland.
Although they barely missed inclusion in last year's survey, having fielded
"only" six high-impact reports as of 1996, Copeland and Jenkins demonstrate here
that they have been in the thick of things. Papers on which they appear as coauthors have
garnered over 13,000 citations in the course of the decade. These papers include two
reports now cited over 900 times each (see R. Watanabe-Fukunaga, et al.,
"Lymphoproliferation disorder in mice explained by defects in Fas antigen that
mediates apoptosis," Nature, 356[6367]:314-7, 1992; and R. Fisel, et al.,
"The human mutator gene homolog MSH2 and its association with hereditary
nonpolyposis cancer," Cell, 75[5]:1027-38, 1993). The two NCI researchers,
along with assorted colleagues, have also collaborated on more than 35 papers that have
been cited over 100 times apiece. Copeland has recently concentrated on the genetic
aspects of hematopoietic disease in mice, while Jenkins has focused on genes and mammalian
development. The two are joined on the list by three fellow researchers at the NCI:
Richard D. Klausner (#32), Curtis C. Harris (#34), and Ira Pastan (#49).
Another top-ranked researcher, largely unsung
in these pages previously, is Robert J. Lefkowitz, an HHMI researcher based at the Duke
University Medical Center (#18). Lefkowitz has collected nearly 11,000 citations for
papers discussing the molecular properties and actions of adrenergic receptors in response
to hormones, drugs, neurotransmitters, and other factors.
Vogelstein and Lefkowitz are just two of the
10 HHMI researchers featured here. Other Hughes personnel include Ronald M. Evans (#19),
recently singled out by Science Watch as the hottest scientist of 1997 (9[2]:1-2,
March/April 1998), and Korsmeyer (#23), Caron (#29), Massagué (#30), Schreiber (#31),
Ihle (#39), Tjian (#43), and Beach (#44). The representation of Hughes researchers (20% of
the top 50) recalls an analysis in these pages four years ago that showed that HHMI
scientists accounted for one in four of the 200 most-cited papers of each year from 1985
through 1993 (see Science Watch, 5[5]:7, May 1994). Johns Hopkins University also earns
some bragging rights in the present survey: five of the 50 scientists are based there.
| Top Producers, Top
Impact |
For sheer output, none of the researchers
assembled here could match transplant surgeon Thomas E. Starzl of the University of
Pittsburgh. Starzl and colleagues have produced over 900 papers during the 1990s somehow
improving on his already superhuman output of 500 papers during 1981-1990, as reported by Science
Watch seven years ago in a survey of the most prolific scientists of the 1980s
(2[10]:1-2, November/December 1991). Not too far behind Starzl is Peter J. Barnes of the
National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London (#41), who thus far in the
decade has published over 600 reports on asthma, respiratory inflammation, and other
aspects of thoracic medicine. And epidemiologist Walter C. Willett of Harvard University
(#27) has appeared as an author on 500 papers this decade, often with Harvard colleague
Meir J. Stampfer (#35). Many of their reports have been featured in Science Watch's
medicine Top Ten over the years, including, most recently, a 1996 New England Journal
of Medicine study of beta carotene as a preventive dietary supplement against cancer
and heart disease; this paper currently ranks #10 in medicine (see page 5 of this issue).
Were these 50 scientists to be re-ranked by
impact (citations per paper), Richard M.J. Palmer (#25) would lead the field. Palmer,
formerly of Glaxo Wellcome and now with the bio-technology firm of Alizyme in Cambridge,
U.K., averaged 167 cites per paper, thanks to highly cited reports on nitric oxide
(coauthored with Salvador Moncada). Vogelstein posts the next-highest impact mark for this
group, with 147 cites per paper. Another nitric-oxide researcher, David S. Bredt (#16), UC
San Francisco, averaged 138 cites per paper, while Kenneth W. Kinzler (#6), a frequent
coauthor with Vogelstein, posted an impact score of 120.
View on the next page: "50 Biomedicial Scientists, Ranked by Total Citations,"
table.
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