Harvard University Chemistry Papers Have Highest Impact Worldwide

pp.14 Editor's Note: From 1988 to 1992, research papers by chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, were cited well over 11,000 times in subsequent articles. This total, according to data from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in Philadelphia, exceeds that of any other of the world's research centers--academic, corporate, or otherwise. However, in terms of the impact of its published chemistry articles--the average number of citations the papers received in subsequent articles-- Harvard University was the clear leader during that period. A recent article in the ISI newsletter Science Watch reports that during those five years, a chemistry paper published by Harvard researchers was subsequently referred to, on average, more than nine times, while the average Berkeley paper received fewer than seven citations. Nevertheless, the impact of the Berkeley chemistry papers was still higher than that of any institution from outside the United States; although the margin was narrow, Berkeley ranked just ahead of the leading foreign institution--Tel Aviv University--in citations per chemistry paper. Following is a report on Science Watch's analysis, published in the newsletter's June 1993 issue (4[6]:1-2) and used here with the permission of ISI. A year and a half ago, Science Watch drew up a list of 50 universities from around the globe that scored best in terms of citations per paper for chemistry articles published in 1984-1990 (Science Watch, 3[2]:1-2, February/March 1992). The results of this survey excited much interest and not a little controversy in the United States and abroad, since in some instances peer judgment and citation statistics contrasted sharply. In particular, certain historically strong universities found themselves bested by younger up-and-comers. Naturally, the Young Turks hailed these findings, while the Old Guard grumbled about the method used. Different methods produce different results, as all scientists know. So, with this report, Science Watch returns to ask the same question but in a different way. TOP 25 U.S. INSTITUTIONS IN CHEMISTRY RANKED BY CITATION IMPACT, 1988-92 1 HARVARD UNIV. 937 8,465 9.03 2 CALTECH 821 6,817 8.30 3 YALE UNIV. 749 5,953 7.95 4 UNIV. OF CHICAGO713 5,606 7.86 5 RICE UNIV. 404 3,014 7.46 6 AT&T BELL LABS 1,091 8,088 7.41 7 NORTHEASTERN UNIV.256 1,840 7.19 8 UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA 808 5,776 7.15 9 UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES 894 6,165 6.90 10 STANFORD UNIV. 1,105 7,578 6.86 11 UNIV. OF COLORADO, BOULDER 737 5,008 6.80 12 MIT 1,486 10,076 6.78 13 LAWRENCE BERKELEY LABORATORY 890 6,021 6.77 14 UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY 1,680 11,310 6.73 15 ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY 885 5,818 6.57 16 INDIANA UNIV. 848 5,545 6.54 17 NORTHWESTERN UNIV.928 6,063 6.53 18 UNIV. OF NO. CAROLINA, CHAPEL HILL 690 4,487 6.50 19 SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORY 540 3,509 6.50 20 UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 625 4,053 6.48 21 UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE 489 3,105 6.35 22 IBM 1,603 9,922 6.19 23 UNIV. OF UTAH 1.069 6,593 6.17 24 UNIV. OF PITTSBURGH974 5,934 6.09 25 DUPONT 1,177 7,123 6.05 Source: Science Watch / Institute for Scientific Information This time, chemistry articles indexed by ISI between 1988 and 1992 were surveyed. Included in the current analysis were all types of journal articles, whereas previously only discovery accounts, reviews, and notes were counted. But the most significant difference in methodology this time out was the identification and inclusion of chemistry papers published in the high-impact journals Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. In the previous study, papers published in multidisciplinary journals were not considered because there was no way to select chemistry articles from among those on other subjects that also appeared within these titles. Now ISI's research department uses an algorithm that scans the reference lists of papers published in multidisciplinary journals to find those that frequently cite a specific field. Such papers can then be categorized, or tagged, according to the subject area most cited. About 60 percent to 70 percent of these papers can be categorized in this way. Although the omission of papers published in high-impact multidisciplinary journals was uniform for all institutions, the previous report nonetheless provoked criticism in that some of the best papers from the various institutions had not been taken into account (see, for example, Science, 260[5110]:885, May 14, 1993). Science Watch, thus, sought to address this criticism and to look for any large differences in the results. For the new ranking, as well as for the old one, only those institutions that published 250 or more papers were ranked. U.S. and non-U.S. institutions are presented separately here, since-- owing to the large number of U.S. publications in the ISI database and the tendency for U.S. researchers to cite the work `of colleagues in the U.S.--the citation scores for U.S. institutions are typically higher than those for non-U.S. institutions. Harvard University tops the table among U.S. institutions, having placed second in the last survey. The California Institute of Technology, which previously capped the chemistry chart, ranks second this time and is runner-up to Harvard. The University of Chicago, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Yale University, and Stanford University, which turn up in the new top 10, also ranked in the top 10 in the previous analysis. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology dropped considerably from last time to this time, while Rice University rose sharply in rank. All in all, however, the same cast of characters tends to appear in both lists. Notable in the new list are three corporations (AT&T Bell Labs, IBM Corp., and E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. Inc.) and three government-sponsored laboratories (Lawrence Berkeley, Argonne, and Sandia). These rank side by side with the top-ranked U.S. universities. Among non-U.S. institutions, Tel Aviv University, the Max Planck Society's Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, and the Weizmann Institute rank first, second, and third. Israel's strong showing is apparent in the national rankings for chemistry, 1988-92, in which it ranks second only to the U.S. in terms of citation impact (see Science, 260[5115]: 1738, June 18, 1993). The United Kingdom's top-ranked university in chemistry turns out to be Cambridge, followed by Southampton, Bristol, Oxford, and Sussex. Three of Germany's six institutions listed in the chart are affiliated with the Max Planck organization. Switzerland is represented by the ETH and the Universities of Basel, Lausanne, and Zurich. Philips Labs and the State University of Groningen show the colors for the Netherlands, while the CEN and the University of Strasbourg 1 stand tall for France. Australia, Canada, Italy, and Japan each field one. The new study surveyed a total of 393,898 chemistry papers published in 1988-92, which were cited a total of 1,007,624 times by the end of 1992, for a world citations-per-paper average of 2.56.

Harvard University Chemistry Papers Have Highest Impact Worldwide

The Scientist Staff

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