Top nations in plant and animal sciences

Data on the top 20 nations in the field of plant and animal sciences were extracted from the Essential Science Indicators database of Thomson Reuters. This database, currently covering the period January 2000 to August 2010, surveys only articles (original research reports and review articles) in journals indexed by Thomson Reuters. Articles are assigned to a category based on the journals in which they were published and Thomson Reuters’ journal-to-field definition scheme.

Both the articles tabulated and citation counts to those articles are for the period indicated. Here our ranking in plant and animal sciences is by citations per paper (among nations that published 5,000 or more papers) to reveal weighted influence. For articles with multiple authors from different nations, each nation receives full, not fractional, publication and citation credit. Essential Science Indicators lists nations ranked in the top 50 per cent for a field over a given period, based on total citations. In plant and animal sciences, 106 nations are listed, meaning 212 were surveyed. Thirty nations published 5,000 or more papers during the period. The world average in citation impact for the field was 7.54 during the period, so 18 of the 20 nations above surpassed this mark.

The UK is the clear field leader. Although not listed, Wales, with 2,349 papers, earned a citations-per-paper score of 11.66, while Northern Ireland, with 988 papers, achieved an impact score of 10.02. With the exception of the US, the top 10 nations are European.

For more information, see http://science.thomsonreuters.com/products/esi

Top Nations in Plant and Animal Sciences
Data provided by Thomson Reuters from its Essential Science Indicators, January 2000-August 2010
	Country	Papers	Citations	Impact
1	England	30,347	390,092	12.85
2	Scotland	9,806	112,546	11.48
3	The Netherlands	12,242	139,781	11.42
4	Switzerland	8,898	101,221	11.38
5	Sweden	9,493	107,671	11.34
6	Denmark	7,292	79,909	10.96
7	France	26,664	1,089	10.17
8	Germany	36,714	371,921	10.13
9	United States	152,338	1,524,368	10.01
10	Norway	6,563	61,953	9.44
11	Australia	26,194	239,899	9.16
12	Canada	31,555	286,858	9.09
13	Belgium	9,123	82,412	9.03
14	Finland	5,587	50,452	9.03
15	Austria	5,319	44,404	8.35
16	New Zealand	7,702	62,657	8.14
17	Spain	22,020	176,216	8.00
18	Japan	38,200	297,262	7.78
19	Italy	17,711	123,135	6.95
20	South Korea	7,867	49,920	6.35