Special Topic of Alzheimer's Disease
Published March 2011
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, devastating, and currently incurable dementia that gradually destroys cognitive function to the extent that those afflicted cannot carry out the simple tasks of day-to-day living. Although the disease has been known since 1906, when Dr. Alois Alzheimer first described it in a patient, its cause is still unknown.
The features of this Special Topic outlined above represent distinct slices of citation data. By approaching citation data from multiple angles, we can observe trends and anomalies across categories—leading to more rich and nuanced stories behind the data.
The baseline time span for this database is (publication years) January 1, 2000-December 31, 2010. This analysis was created using the Web of Science® from Clarivate. The resulting database contained 65,956 (10 years) and 15,937 (2 years) papers; 125,258 authors; 130 nations; 3,877 journals; and 21,203 institutions. See additional information below in the overview & methodology sections.
Topic Overview
A test-tube containing extracts of a
flower bulb is shown by a scientist at the
University of Leiden April 16, 2007. The
University of Leiden uses the daffodil
bulbs to extract the chemical
galantamine, winch is one of the drugs
used in the treatment of Alzheimer's
disease. REUTERS/Koen van Wee.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive, devastating, and currently incurable dementia that gradually destroys cognitive function to the extent that those afflicted cannot carry out the simple tasks of day-to-day living. Although the disease has been known since 1906, when Dr. Alois Alzheimer first described it in a patient, its cause is still unknown. Its physical effects on the brain, however, are well-documented: AD-affected brains exhibit amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and loss of connection between neurons.
According to the National Institute on Aging, AD is the most common form of dementia in older people, and it is possible that as many as 5.1 million Americans have the disease.1 A 2003 study by Hebert et al. estimates that in the year 2000, there were 4.5 million Americans with AD, and by 2050, this number may increase three-fold.2
In this analysis, Special Topics revisits an analysis we first ran in 2003, with updated data and more features, examining the literature on AD over the past decade and over the past two years. To construct the initial data pool, the keyword "alzheimer*" was used to search titles, abstracts, and keywords of original articles, reviews, and proceedings papers published in the Web of Science® database from Clarivate between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2010. To make the paper lists more on-point, we restricted to those articles containing the keyword "alzheimer*" in the title.
1. http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/Publications/adfact.htm
2. Hebert LE, et al., "Alzheimer disease in the US
population—Prevalence estimates using the 2000 census," Arch.
Neurol. 60[8]: 1119-1122, August 2003.
INTERVIEWS MENU
Read interviews, first-person essays, profiles, and other features about people in a wide variety of fields, along with information on journals & institutions in the topic of Alzheimer's Disease. All of the author comments below are also listed in the site-wide Author Commentaries listings (available by month/year or alphabetically).
DECEMBER 2011
Virginia
Lee & John Trojanowski on the Protein Roadmap to
Alzheimer's
Our Special Topics analysis of Alzheimer's Disease research over the past decade shows that the work of Dr. Virginia M.-Y. Lee ranks at #2 by total cites and #8 by total papers, based on 217 papers cited a total of 13,693 times, and the work of Dr. John Q. Trojanowski ranks at #3 by total cites and #6 by total papers, based on 239 papers cited a total of 13,237 times. Lee and Trojanowski both rank among the top 1% of researchers in the fields of Neuroscience & Behavior, Clinical Medicine, and Biology & Biochemistry in Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Clarivate. Earlier this year, ScienceWatch.com Editor Jennifer Minnick met with the two researchers at their University of Pennsylvania office to talk about their work.
OCTOBER 2011
John
Morris on Detecting Alzheimer's at the Preclinical
Stage
In our Special Topics analysis on Alzheimer's Disease research over the past decade, the work of Dr. John C. Morris ranks at #10 by total paper and #13 by total cites, based on 203 papers cited a total of 9,323 times during the analysis period. Two of these papers are among the top 20 papers over the past decade and over the past two years. According to Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Clarivate, Morris's record includes 375 papers, classified under Neuroscience & Behavior, Clinical Medicine, and Molecular Biology & Genetics, cited a total of 13,082 times between January 1, 2001 and June 30, 2011. Here, Morris talks with ScienceWatch.com correspondent Gary Taubes about his highly cited Alzheimer's research.
SEPTEMBER 2011
David
Bennett on Identifying Risk Factors for Alzheimer's
Our Special Topics analysis of Alzheimer's Disease over the past decade shows that the work of Dr. David Bennett ranks at #9 by total papers and #12 by total cites, based on 209 papers cited a total of 9,577 times during the analysis period. According to Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Clarivate, Bennett's work ranks among the top 1% of researchers in the fields of Neuroscience & Behavior, Clinical Medicine, Psychiatry & Psychology, and Social Sciences. His total record in the database includes 263 papers cited a total of 10,357 times between January 1, 2001 and April 30, 2011. In this interview, he talks with ScienceWatch.com correspondent Gary Taubes about his highly cited work in Alzheimer's.
AUGUST 2011
Jeffrey
Cummings on Early Diagnosis for Alzheimer's
The work of Dr. Jeffrey Cummings ranks at #11 by total cites and #15 by number of papers in our Special Topics analysis of Alzheimer's Disease research over the past decade. According to Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Clarivate, he ranks among the top 1% of researchers in the fields of Neuroscience & Behavior, Clinical Medicine, Psychiatry & Psychology, and Social Sciences. In this interview, Cummings talks with ScienceWatch.com correspondent Gary Taubes about his highly cited Alzheimer's research.
JULY 2011
Mark
Mattson Discusses the Relationship Between Energy Metabolism &
Alzheimer's
Our Special Topic on Alzheimer's Disease shows that the work of Dr. Mark P. Mattson ranks at #6 by total cites and #18 by total papers, based on 176 papers cited 11,195 times during the analysis period. Mattson is among the top 1% of researchers in the fields of Neuroscience & Behavior, Clinical Medicine, Biology & Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Genetics, and Social Sciences in Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Clarivate. In this interview, ScienceWatch.com correspondent Gary Taubes talks with Mattson about his highly cited work in Alzheimer's disease.
JUNE 2011
George
Perry on the Role of Oxidative Stress in Alzheimer's
Disease
Our Special Topics analysis on Alzheimer's Disease shows that the work of Dr. George Perry ranks at #2 by total papers and #7 by total cites, based on 292 papers cited a total of 11,180 times during the analysis period. Two of these papers appear on the top 20 papers lists. His work also appears among the top 1% of scientists in the fields of Neuroscience & Behavior, Biology & Biochemistry, Clinical Medicine, and Pharmacology & Toxicology in Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Clarivate. In this interview, ScienceWatch.com correspondent Gary Taubes talks with him about his highly cited work in Alzheimer's.
JUNE 2011
ScienceWatch.com
Pays Tribute to Mark A. Smith
In our 2011 Special Topics analysis on Alzheimer's Disease, the work of Dr. Mark A. Smith ranks at #1 by total papers and #5 by total cites, based on 329 papers cited a total of 11,807 times during the analysis period. The ScienceWatch.com team was saddened to hear of the unexpected death of Dr. Smith in December 2010. As Dr. Smith's colleagues informed us how excited and honored he would have been by his placement in our analysis, we wanted to acknowledge the contributions his work has made to the field of Alzheimer's research over the past decade
MAY 2011
Colin
Masters on Seeking the Natural History of Alzheimer's
Disease
Our latest analysis of Alzheimer's research shows that the work of Professor Colin Masters ranks at #12 by total papers, based on 200 papers cited a total of 7,507 times over the analysis period of 2000 to 2010. His record in Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Clarivate includes 229 papers cited a total of 8,006 times between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2010. His work ranks among the top 1% in the field of Neuroscience & Behavior, Biology & Biochemistry, and Pharmacology & Toxicology. In this interview, he talks with ScienceWatch.com about his highly cited Alzheimer's research.
APRIL 2010
John Hardy
on Genetics-Based Alzheimer's Disease Research
Our Special Topics analysis on Alzheimer's Disease research over the past decade shows that the work of Professor John Hardy ranks at #9 by total cites, based on 138 papers cited a total of 10,749 times. Three of these papers rank among the top 20 over the past decade or over the past two years. In Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Clarivate, Prof. Hardy is among the top 1% of scientists in the field of Neuroscience & Behavior, Clinical Medicine, and Molecular Biology & Genetics. In this interview, he talks with ScienceWatch.com about his highly cited research as it pertains to Alzheimer's.
MARCH 2011
Dennis
Selkoe on the Amyloid Hypothesis of Alzheimer's Disease
Our latest Special Topics analysis on Alzheimer's Disease shows that the work of Dr. Dennis Selkoe ranks at #1 by total cites, based on 136 papers cited 19,587 times over the analysis period. His record in Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Clarivate includes 136 papers cited 19,806 times between January 1, 2000 and October 31, 2010. In this interview, ScienceWatch.com correspondent Gary Taubes talks with Selkoe about his career in Alzheimer's research.
Thresholds
Once the database was in place, it was used to generate list of authors, journals, institutions, and nations. Rankings for author, journal, institution, and country are listed in three ways: according to total cites, total papers, and total cites/paper*. The paper thresholds and corresponding percentages used to determine scientist, institution, country, and journal rankings according to total cites/paper, and total papers respectively are as follows:
Entity | Authors | Institutions | Journals | Nations |
---|---|---|---|---|
Thresholds | 27 | 153 | 30 | 17 |
Percentage: | 1% | 1% | 10% | 50% |
*Unless otherwise specified, all rankings have a >= 5 paper threshold for all measures. |
Methodology
The baseline time span for this database is (publication years) January 1, 2000-December 31, 2010. This analysis was created using the Web of Science® from Clarivate. The resulting database contained 65,956 (10 years) and 15,937 (2 years) papers; 125,258 authors; 130 nations; 3,877 journals; and 21,203 institutions. See additional information below in the overview & methodology sections.
Keywords
The Internet search terms for this Topic are:
ALZHEIMER, DEMENTIA, AMYLOID, INFLAMMATION, HOMOCYSTEINE, ANTIBODIES, CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, MOUSE MODEL, BETA PEPTIDE VACCINATION, MEMORY LOSS, 3-HYDROXY-3-METHYLGLUTARYL COENZYME A REDUCTASE INHIBITORS, BEHAVIORAL IMPAIRMENT, PLAQUES, BRAIN, IMAGING, PITTSBURGH COMPOUND B, INTRACELLULAR A BETA, SYNAPTIC DYSFUNCTION, BETA-AMLYOID FIBRILS, COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT, EARLY STAGE, US POPULATION, PREVALANCE, MEMANTINE, SIMVASTATIN, NEUROPATHY, SOLUBLE PROTEIN OLIGAMERS, OXIDATIVE DAMAGE, GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDIES, CLU, PICALM, CR1, CEREBROSPINAL FLUID BIOMARKER, MRI, PATHOLOGICAL EVENTS, CORTICAL HUBS, APOLIPOPROTEIN E, GENETIC RISK, NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR, MITCHONDRIAL FISSION AND FUSION, BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER DISORDER, STATINS, ROTTERDAM STUDY, PCDH11X, INTERCELLULAR CALCIUM WAVES, ASTROCYTES, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, DIET.
Reuters PictureS and Featured Images
A pensioner drinks a glass of water
during a hot summer day in a residential
home for the elderly in Marseille
July 9, 2010. REUTERS/Jean-Paul
Pelissier.
The images throughout the Special Topic of Alzheimer's disease are from Reuters Pictures.
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Head Picture
An elderly woman is escorted by an aide in London, March 22, 2010. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett.
Featured Image: An elderly woman is escorted by an aide in London, March 22, 2010. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett.