Institution Rankings in Chemistry, 1997-2007

June 2008

Top institution rankings in chemistry, based on citations per paper among institutions with 50,000 or more citations, between January 1997 to December 2007. Data from Thomson Reuters Essential Science IndicatorsSM.

Rank Institution Papers Citations Citations
Per Paper
1 SCRIPPS RES INST , USA 2,178 71,251 32.71
2 HARVARD UNIV , USA 2,773 90,094 32.49
3 CALTECH , USA 2,217 70,748 31.91
4 YALE UNIV , USA 1,766 53,603 30.35
5 MIT , USA 3,734 99,650 26.69
6 NORTHWESTERN UNIV , USA 2,888 74,379 25.75
7 UNIV CALIF BERKELEY , USA 5,271 127,846 24.25
8 UNIV CALIF SANTA BARBARA ,USA 2,225 50,948 22.90
9 STANFORD UNIV , USA 2,729 62,003 22.72
10 UNIV UTRECHT , Germany 2,469 50,244 20.35
11 UNIV STRASBOURG 1 , France 3,553 70,108 19.73
12 UNIV MINNESOTA , USA 3,693 67,403 18.25
13 UNIV TEXAS AUSTIN , USA 3,241 57,200 17.65
14 UNIV ILLINOIS , USA 4,486 76,533 17.06
15 UNIV WISCONSIN , USA 3,553 60,276 16.96
16 ETH ZURICH , Switzerland 4,900 82,264 16.79
17 MAX PLANCK SOCIETY , Germany 11,765 184,643 15.69
18 UNIV LONDON IMPERIAL COLL SCI TECHNOL & MED , United Kingdom 3,591 56,129 15.63
19 UNIV CAMBRIDGE , United Kingdom 4,849 75,741 15.62
20 TECH UNIV MUNICH , Germany 3,561 55,546 15.60

The data above were extracted from Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators database. This database, currently covering the period January 1997 to December 2007, surveys only journal articles (original research reports and review articles) indexed by Thomson Scientific. Articles are assigned to a category based on the journals in which they were published and Thomson Scientific’s journal-to-category field definition scheme. Both articles tabulated and citation counts to those articles are for the period indicated. Naturally, institutions publishing large numbers of papers have a greater likelihood of collecting more citations than scientists publishing fewer papers. This ranking is by citations per paper (impact), among those institutions that have collected 50,000 or more citations in chemistry.

For papers with multiple institutional addresses, each institution receives full, not fractional, citation credit. This analysis reveals a strong performance by US institutions, which take the first nine ranks and 13 of 20 in all. German institutions hold three spots, while UK universities account for two. French and Swiss institutions appear once each. Essential Science Indicators lists institutions ranked in the top 1% for a field over a given period, based on total citations. For the current version, 858 institutions are listed in the field of chemistry, meaning that a total of 85,800 institutions were reviewed to obtain these results. Of the 858, 36 institutions collected 50,000 or more citations. The ranking by citations per paper (impact) seeks to reveal “heavy-hitters” based on per paper influence, not mere output.

Visit Essential Science Indicators from Thomson Reuters.

This item also appeared in the Times Higher Education magazine, reprinted with their permission.

The data and citation records included in this report are from Thomson Reuters Web of KnowledgeSM. Web of KnowledgeSM is a registered trademark of Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.