Field rankings for Italy

	Field	Papers	Citations	Citations per paper	World average	% +/–
1	Physics	49,981	482,807	9.66	8.19	+18
2	Agricultural sciences	6,918	50,323	7.	6.20	+17
3	Space sciences	12,093	184,680	15.	13.17	+16
4	Clinical medicine	101,537	1,380,522	13.60	11.99	+13
5	Chemistry	42,863	467,368	10.90	9.72	+12
6	Engineering	33,372	146,901	4.40	3.93	+12
7	Materials science	10,753	66,832	6.22	5.72	+9
8	Pharmacology	8,731	97,159	11.13	10.96	+2
9	Mathematics	13,261	41,125	3.10	3.07	+1
10	Psychology/psychiatry	4,681	46,353	9.90	9.93	0
11	Computer sciences	12,087	36,854	3.05	3.15	–3
12	Geosciences	12,615	105,123	8.33	8.72	–4
13	Immunology	6,267	125,554	20.03	20.92	–4
14	Social sciences	3,743	14,992	4.01	4.16	–4
15	Plant and animal science	16,786	106,104	6.32	7.06	–10
16	Environmental sciences	7,521	64,287	8.55	9.75	–12
17	Molecular biology	12,162	253,373	20.83	25.13	–17
18	Neurosciences	18,3	268,328	14.68	18.18	–19
19	Biochemistry	24,456	319,059	13.05	16.41	–20
20	Economics/business	3,632	14,908	4.10	5.19	–21
21	Microbiology	5,430	62,196	11.45	15.04	–24

The data above were extracted from the Essential Science Indicators database of Thomson Reuters. This database, currently covering the period January 1998 to December 2008, surveys only journal articles (original research reports and review articles) indexed by Thomson Reuters. Articles are assigned to a category based on the journals in which they were published and Thomson Reuters’ journal-to-category field-definition scheme. Both articles tabulated and citation counts for those articles are for the period indicated.

Here we survey Italy’s output and citation impact relative to the world average in each field. Overall, Italy ranks eighth in the world in output, seventh in total citations, and eighteenth in citations per paper. The table above compares Italy’s citation impact in a specific field with the citation impact score for the world in the same field. Italy’s percentage above or below the world is presented in the column on the far right. Physics, agricultural sciences and space sciences rank as the top three fields for Italy relative to the world, according to citations per paper. For more information on Thomson Reuters’ Essential Science Indicators, see http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/products/esi.