In terms of institutions, the biomedical ranking features a diversity of schools and organizations, in addition to the traditional powerhouses of Cambridge and Oxford. Notably, the University of Dundee accounts for the #2 and #3 places. In reviewing the list, Science Watch Biology correspondent Jeremy Cherfas observed that some years ago, officials at Dundee took the "very un-British" tack of investing substantially and calculatedly in building research programs and attracting talent to the university. The present list suggests that, at least in terms of scientific influence as measured by citations, the effort may be paying off.

   Cambridge, meanwhile, registers strongly on the physical-sciences ranking, fielding nearly a third of the list and three of the five top-cited researchers–the most cited of all being Richard H. Friend of the Cavendish Laboratory, whose research on light-emitting polymers and other materials has attracted over 7,000 citations during the decade.

   In all, chemistry (or the multidisciplinary area of chemical-physics/physical-chemistry/materials) predominates in the physical-sciences ranking. Exceptions include astrophysics or cosmology (Andrew C. Fabian, #5; George Efstathiou, #7; Richard S. Ellis, #12; and Carlos S. Frenk, #16), radio astronomy (Andrew G. Lyne, #30), and theoretical particle physics (Richard G. Roberts, #13; W. James Stirling, #17; and Alan D. Martin, #24).

   Nearly all the most cited researchers in the physical sciences table collected fewer citations during the 1990s than those in the biomedical sciences table. The biomedical sciences, as a whole, exhibit a higher average citation rate than the physical sciences, but there are of course exceptions to this rule of thumb in specific fields.