For this article, Leslie Pray interviewed Isa Mushahwar, consultant and retired distinguished research fellow and director of the Virus Discovery Group, Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Ill. Data from the Web of Science (ISI, Philadelphia) show that Hot Papers are cited 50 to 100 times more often than the average paper of the same type and age.

I.K. Mushahwar et al. J.C. Erker, A.S. Muerhoff, T.P Leary, J.N. Simons, L.G. Birkenmeyer, M.L. Chalmers, T.J. Pilot-Matias, S.M. Dexai, "Molecular and biophysical characterization of TT virus: Evidence for a new virus family infecting humans," Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, 96:3177-82, March 16, 1999. (Cited in 128 papers)


In 1997, a group of Japanese scientists discovered a novel virus in a patient hospitalized for an acute illness that was treated as hepatitis. But because the patient's disease was not caused by any of the known hepatitis viruses, the researchers speculated...

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