The Most-Cited Institutions in Plant
& Animal Science, 1997-2007 An institutional profile from
Essential Science
IndicatorsSM
This month, ScienceWatch.com presents a
listing of the top 20 institutions which, as of the
sixth bimonthly update of
Essential Science Indicators from
Thomson
Scientific (January 1, 1997-December 31, 2007),
attracted the highest total citations to their papers
published in Thomson Scientific-indexed Plant &
Animal Science journals. These institutions are the top
20 out of a pool of 768 institutions comprising the top
1% ranked by total citation count in this field.
The Plant & Animal Science field includes journals that cover the
following topics:
regional botany
mycology
bryology
plant physiology
forestry
weed science
plant pathology
economic botany
aquatic botany and toxicology
marine ecology
plant nutrition
photosynthesis research
experimental botany
cellular and molecular biology or physiology of plant cells and plant
systems
animal behavior
animal production science
poultry science
wildlife research
lab animal science
zoology
primatology
mammalogy
herpetology
nematology
malacology
entomology and pest control
veterinary medicine
animal health
marine and freshwater biology
fisheries science
aquaculture
The top 20 institutions in this field are a blend of academic and
government bodies from around the world: 12 are from the US, six are from
Europe, and two are from the Asia/Pacific region.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) tops this list, with
13,289 papers cited a total of 105,946 times. Topics covered in these
highly cited papers include plant volatiles as insecticides, gene studies of
Arabidopsis,
plant-microbe interactions, lignin biosynthesis, and animal
parasites—in particular, Neospora caninum and
neosporosis.
France's Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) ranks at #2,
with 6,418 papers cited a total of 66,153 times. Among INRA's research
interests are RNA silencing in plants, the role of glutathione in
transformed plants, mapping the rice genome, and wine pigments. INRA
researcher David Wendehenne and his German colleague
Jörg Durner once spoke with us about their
highly cited paper, "In vivo imaging of an elicitor-induced
nitric oxide burst in tobacco," (Foissner I, et al., Plant J.
23[6]: 817-24, September 2000).
Ranking at #3 is the University of California, Davis, with 6,479 papers
cited a total of 64,747 times. Davis's highly cited papers include plant
disease resistance genes, auxin response, eukaryotic phytochromes, and
cellulose biosynthesis. Highly cited author
Richard W. Michelmore spoke with us about the paper,
"Genome-wide analysis of NBS-LRR-encoding genes in
Arabidopsis," (Meyers BC et al., Plant Cell 15[4]:
809-34, April 2003).
Fourth on the list is Cornell University, with 4,921 papers cited a total
of 56,748 times. Among Cornell's research interests are angiosperm
phylogeny, emerging marine diseases, genomic duplications in
Arabidopsis, and plant disease resistance proteins. Cornell
professor Dr. Gregory Martin
(see also) has spoken with us more than once about
his work on these resistance proteins.
Wageningen University in the Netherlands ranks at #5, with 4, 329 papers
cited a total of 51,310 times. Sequencing the genome of Arabidopsis
thaliana, genetic control of flowering time, the effects of UV-B radiation
in higher plants, and in vitro produced and cloned embryos are the subjects
of some of Wageningen's highly cited papers.
With 2,559 papers cited a total of 47,554 times, Germany's Max Planck
Society ranks at #6. Topics covered in this institution's highly cited
papers include culture in chimpanzees, metabolomics, plant transcription
factors, and metabolic profiling for genetically or environmentally
modified plant systems.
Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) ranks at #7, with 3,944 papers and 45,356 total cites. Gene
silencing in plants accounts for four of CSIRO's top 20 papers; four others
concern various aspects of Arabidopsis research. Other topics of
interest include emerging infectious diseases in wildlife, amphibian
population declines in the rain forests of Australia and Central America,
and aluminum tolerance in plants.
The University of Wisconsin ranks at #8, with 3,886 papers cited a total of
44,151 times, and the University of Florida ranks at #9, with 5,760 papers
cited a total of 39,608 times.
Rounding out the top 10 is the UK's John Innes Centre, with 1,203 papers
garnering a total of 39,538 citations. Among the John Innes researchers who
have spoken to us about their work are
David Baulcombe,
Martin Parniske, and
Ken Shirasu.
The remaining US institutions in the top 20 are: the University of Georgia
at #11 (4,456 papers, 38,457 cites), the University of California, Berkeley
at #13 (2,072 papers, 36,619 cites), Michigan State University at #14
(3,358 papers, 36,518 cites), North Carolina State University at #15 (4,205
papers, 35,458 cites), Texas A&M University at #17 (4,266 papers,
33,474 cites), the University of Minnesota at #18 (3,370 papers, 31,763
cites), and the University of Illinois at #19 (3,340 papers, 31, 304
cites).
Other European institutions on the list include Spain's Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) at #12, with 4,504 papers cited a
total of 37,885 times, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
at #16, with 3,779 papers cited a total of 34,115 times. Finishing up the
list is Japan's University of Tokyo, with 3,856 papers garnering a total of
30,872 citations.
The top 20 institutions in Plant & Animal Science are listed in full in
the table below:
Top 20 Institutions in Plant &
Animal Science
(Ranked by Citations)