Top universities and scholars in biochemistry

A group of US universities dominate a list of the world’s universities that are most likely to publish highly cited research in biochemistry.

Out of 10 universities that are at least four times more likely than the world average to publish in the top 10 per cent of highly cited articles for the subject, nine are based in the country, led by the University of California, Berkeley.

The findings come from the latest “expected output index” (EOI) analysis of subject areas in Elsevier’s Scopus bibliometric database.

From 2014 to 2017, biochemistry carried the most research publications – almost 300,000 – in the wider subject area of biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology.  

Berkeley itself published 992 times on the subject, a fair bit less than the second-placed institution on the list – Stanford University – which had more than 1,400 publications in biochemistry over the period. However, Berkeley was five times more likely than the world average for its research to be among the top 10 per cent most cited in the world.

Stanford tied for second place in the list with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an EOI of 4.58, followed by Northwestern University (EOI of 4.39), the University of Pennsylvania (4.26) and Cornell University (4.09).

The only non-US university in the EOI list for biochemistry is Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University in eighth place that had an EOI of 4.05. No European institution appears in the list until ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in 12th place.

Meanwhile, an author based at another US institution – the University of Chicago – comes top in the EOI list for 2014 to 2017 by individual researcher.

Wenbin Lin, James Franck professor of chemistry at the university, was almost 65 times more likely than the world average to have published research in the top 1 per cent of cited articles over the period.

According to his page on Chicago’s website, Professor Lin’s research group “works on a variety of interdisciplinary research projects concerning sustainability and human health”.

“While addressing fundamental chemical problems, our research addresses crucial social issues, such as the environment and sustainability…alternative renewable energy…and human health.”

Top 10 scholars in biochemistry research, 2014 to 2017, by expected output in top 1 per cent of world's most cited publications (world average =1) 

Source: Elsevier/SciVal

simon.baker@timeshighereducation.com