THOMSON SCIENTIFIC NAMES BEST WITH BEASTS

U.S. Department of Agriculture and Northern Ireland’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development lead field of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health.

 

Philadelphia, PA USA - London UK - May 18, 2005 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Northern Ireland (DARDNI) “lead the pack” in research on veterinary medicine and animal health, according to new rankings published in Science Watch, the Thomson Scientific bimonthly newsletter. Thomson Scientific is a business of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).

The USDA leads the field in “total citations,” the number of times an institution was cited in other published scientific works. In contrast, the DARDNI leads the world in “citation impact,” the average number of times each paper produced by the institution was cited. The USDA is the only institution to rank in the top 10 for both total citations and citation impact.

“Citations are an acknowledgement of intellectual debt—a direct demonstration of influence in a given subject area,” said Christopher King, editor of Science Watch. “Tracking these institutions in terms of total citations and citation impact paints a realistic picture of the most influential institutions—the thought leaders—in a given field. To survey this field, Thomson extracted more than 140,000 papers published from 1994 to 2004 from 150 Thomson Scientific-indexed journals categorized under the headings of veterinary sciences, veterinary medicine and animal health,” explained King.

U.S. institutions had the strongest presence of any country in these rankings. Eight of the 10 most highly-cited institutions are based in the U.S., while U.S. institutions account for three of the 10 with the highest impact.

Ranked by Total Citations
 Two U.S. institutions, the USDA (15,541 total citations) and University of California-Davis (13,662) each boasted a much higher citation total than the other high-ranking institutions, including third-ranked Ohio State University (7,521 total citations). UC-Davis also boasted the highest output of papers for all the institutions ranked in this survey—approximately 2,500 papers during the 11-year period. The USDA published approximately 1,900 papers during the same period.

Most Highly Cited Veterinary/Animal Institutions
(Ordered by number of citations)

Rank Institution # Citations (1994-2004)
1 U.S. Department of Agriculture 15,541
2 University of California, Davis 13,662
3 Ohio State University 7,521
4 University of Utrecht (Netherlands) 7,386
5 Colorado State University 6,738
6 Cornell University 6,614
7 University of Wisconsin 6,147
8 University of Minnesota 6,105
9 University of Guelph (Canada) 6,015
10 University of Georgia 5,939

Ranked by Citation Impact
 In the impact ranking, the DARDNI made the most of the 272 papers it published during the 11-year period, earning an average of more than 10 citations per paper. Institut Pasteur, a French institution, ranked second in impact with 9.72 citations per paper, while the University of Maryland, one of three U.S. institutions ranked in the top 10, boasted 8.98 citations per paper.

Highest Impact Veterinary/Animal Institutions
 (Ordered by average number of citations per paper)

Rank Institution Impact (1994-2004)
1 Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Northern Ireland 10.31
2 Institut Pasteur (France) 9.72
3 University of Maryland 8.98
4 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 8.83
5 Danish Veterinary Laboratory 8.75
6 Institute for Animal Health (U.K.) 8.56
7 Wageningen University (Netherlands) 8.24
8 U.S. Department of Agriculture 8.08
9 Moredun Research Institute (Scotland) 7.48
10 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia) 7.41

The May/June issue of Science Watch offers an extended list of total citations and citation impact spanning the leading 25 institutions. It also lists the top 25 highly-cited authors, as well as the top veterinary medicine/animal health research journals. For these additional rankings, please contact Rodney Yancey at 215-386-6362 or rodney.yancey@thomson.com.

NOTE: For information on subscribing to Science Watch, contact Rodney Yancey at 215-386-6362 or by email at rodney.yancey@thomson.com


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