This month, ScienceWatch.com presents a
listing of the top 20 institutions which, according to
our Special Topic on
tuberculosis
(TB), attracted the highest total citations to their
papers published on the topic inThomson
Reuters-indexed journals.
These institutions are the top 20 ranked by total cites
out of a pool of 9,186 institutions publishing on this
topic, based solely on the keyword "tuberculosis"
in the titles of papers.
The resulting list of institutions is a balanced blend from the
international community, and includes universities, government
organizations, and the private sector. Eleven of the institutions are
US-based, eight are European, and the final institution on the list is
South African.
Powerhouse researchers in the field Stewart Cole and
Roland Brosch would seem to be largely responsible
for the ranking of the Institut Pasteur in the #1 slot. This institute
has 336 papers in the analysis, which were cited a total of 11,677
times—more than 4,000 citations ahead of the rest of the pack. The
paper Cole and Brosch coauthored with several colleagues at Pasteur and
elsewhere, "Deciphering the biology of Mycobacterium
tuberculosis from the complete genome sequence," (Nature
393[6685]: 537, 11 June 1998), also claims the top spot on the list of
the most-cited papers over the past decade, with 2,809 cites at the time
of the analysis.
Cole, now at EFPL, and Brosch, still at Pasteur, both spoke with
ScienceWatch.com about their work, and these interviews will
appear in future updates of the site. Brosch has also spoken with us in the
past about another of his highly cited papers. In addition, coauthor
Stephen Gordon, who was once affiliated with Pasteur and is now at
University College Dublin, talks with us this month about his work.
Ranked at #2 is the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
with 417 papers cited 7,662 times. Among the CDC's highly cited papers are
such topics as molecular epidemiology markers, outbreak reports, detection
methods, and HIV-related TB.
Chris Dye recently spoke with
ScienceWatch.com about his work on TB
epidemiology
The third-most-cited institution is Yeshiva University, with 189 papers
cited a total of 7,180 times. Based on the papers included in this
analysis, Yeshiva's work is largely concerned with murine models of TB and
molecular-level studies of the organism.
Coming in at #4 is the World Health Organization (WHO), with 240 papers
cited a total of 6,501 times. WHO researcher
Chris Dye recently spoke with
ScienceWatch.com about his work on TB epidemiology, and his
colleague Mario Raviglione will be discussing his own research in a
future update to the site.
The organization at #5 is the US National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Disease (NIAID), with 106 papers cited a total of 6,495 times.
The NIAID's highly cited papers cover topics like the TB genome sequence,
drug candidates, and studies on clinical isolates of TB. Associates at the
NIAID are also coauthors on the top-ranked Nature paper.
At #6 is the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with
296 papers cited a total of 6,117 times. The lead author of the paper
ranked at #5 on the 10-year list, "The growing burden of
tuberculosis—global trends and interactions with the HIV
epidemic," (Corbett EL, et al., Arch. Intern. Med. 163:1009-21,
2003), is affiliated with this institution.
The #7 organization is the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Though it only
has nine papers to its credit, these papers have been cited a total of
5,914 times to date. Associates of the Institute are coauthors on the
top-ranked paper in our analysis.
Colorado State University ranks at #8, with 233 papers cited 5,501 times.
Murine replication studies, virulence factors, and immunity are among the
topics explored in this university's list of highly cited papers.
Denmark's Statens Serum Institute (SSI) ranks at #9, with 170 papers cited
5,335 times. This institution does a great deal of vaccine research, as
well as immunology-based diagnostics. One of the leading researchers from
SSI is Peter Andersen, another scientist whose interview will be posted to
ScienceWatch.com at a later date.
Rounding out the top 10 is Johns Hopkins University, with 265 papers cited
a total of 5,174 times. Highly cited papers for Johns Hopkins include such
topics as whole genome studies, latent TB, vaccine potency, detection
assays, drug treatment, and drug resistance.
There are six more institutions on the list from the US, namely Harvard
University (#11), the University of California, San Francisco (#13),
Stanford University (#15), Case Western Reserve University (#16), the
University of Pittsburgh (#17), and Boston University (#19); as well as one
more institution apiece for the UK and Denmark—the University of
Oxford (#12) and the Technical University of Denmark (#18). The Netherlands
is represented by the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental
Protection (#14). South Africa is also on the board, with the University of
Stellenbosch (#20).
The top 20 institutions in the Special Topic of
Tuberculosis