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Subfield · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Aging research

Aging is a subfield of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology. Science Explorer counts 29k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: biological processes in a human body coupled to increasing age.

Research works
29k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.9k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
1
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+11%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
41% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Aging

Which countries lead Aging research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, China and the United Kingdom rank highest in Aging. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.9k and 1.2k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 0.94× citation excellence · 1.42× journals · 100% breadth 9.7% top 10% · 1.6k works
  2. 2 China #2 all time 1.16× citation excellence · 0.73× journals · 100% breadth 13.9% top 10% · 1k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #4 all time 1.27× citation excellence · 1.43× journals · 100% breadth 12.8% top 10% · 208 works
  4. 4 Japan #9 all time 0.62× citation excellence · 0.84× journals · 100% breadth 6.2% top 10% · 203 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 4 countries ranked in Aging. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Aging

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.9k works
  2. 2 China 1.2k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 247 works
  4. 4 Germany 233 works
  5. 5 India 231 works
  6. 6 Japan 229 works
  7. 7 Canada 173 works
  8. 8 France 168 works
  9. 9 South Korea 144 works
  10. 10 Spain 138 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 41.0%China: 25.3%United Kingdom: 5.3%Germany: 5.0%6 others listed: 23.4%41%largest
United States1,899 · 41.0%China1,171 · 25.3%United Kingdom247 · 5.3%Germany233 · 5.0%6 others listed1,082 · 23.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Aging research?

By volume in 2022-now, Harvard University publishes the most Aging research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard UniversityUnited States 67 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 63 works
  3. 3 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 62 works
  4. 4 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 51 works
  5. 5 National Institutes of HealthUnited States 37 works
  6. 6 Max Planck SocietyGermany 34 works
  7. 7 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 29 works
  8. 8 University of California San DiegoUnited States 28 works
  9. 9 University of California, IrvineUnited States 28 works
  10. 10 University of MichiganUnited States 27 works

Who are the leading researchers in Aging?

Counting only their work in Aging, Linda Partridge, Cornelia I. Bargmann and H. Robert Horvitz have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Linda Partridge United Kingdom · #33,987 worldwide overall 26.6 of 91 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Cornelia I. Bargmann United States · #2,513 worldwide overall 21.4 of 42 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 H. Robert Horvitz United States · #16,394 worldwide overall 26.1 of 92 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Gary Ruvkun United States · #22,278 worldwide overall 21.6 of 58 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Oliver Hobert United States · #95,696 worldwide overall 22.4 of 84 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Cynthia J. Kenyon United States · #37,413 worldwide overall 19.4 of 62 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Brian Keith Kennedy United States · #52,175 worldwide overall 19.1 of 65 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Vadim N. Gladyshev United States · #13,751 worldwide overall 16.6 of 41 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Andrew Dillin United States · #16,752 worldwide overall 16.1 of 37 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Anne Sophie Brunet United States · #3,169 worldwide overall 14.3 of 32 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Aging alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 142,173 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Aging researchers

What are the most cited papers in Aging?

The most cited paper in Aging is "THE GENETICS OF CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS" (Sydney Brenner, 1974), with 15,608 citations. Next come "Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans" (15,508) and "The Hallmarks of Aging" (15,388).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 THE GENETICS OF CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS Sydney Brenner · Genetics May 1974 15,608
2 Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans Andrew Z. Fire, Siqun Xu, Mary Katherine Montgomery et al. · Nature Open access Feb 1998 15,508
3 The Hallmarks of Aging Carlos López-Otı́n, Marı́a A. Blasco, Linda Partridge et al. · Cell Open access Jun 2013 15,388
4 The C. elegans heterochronic gene lin-4 encodes small RNAs with antisense complementarity to lin-14 Rosalind C. Lee, Rhonda L. Feinbaum, Victor Ambros · Cell Open access Dec 1993 13,024
5 Oxidants, oxidative stress and the biology of ageing Toren Finkel, Nikki J. Holbrook · Nature Nov 2000 9,446
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Aging research done?

The largest centres of Aging research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), New York (United States) and London (United Kingdom). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Chevy Chase, Worcester and Irvine.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 195 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 93 works
  3. 3 New YorkUnited States 91 works
  4. 4 LondonUnited Kingdom 85 works
  5. 5 ParisFrance 83 works
  6. 6 TokyoJapan 71 works
  7. 7 MoscowRussia 68 works
  8. 8 NanjingChina 65 works
  9. 9 GuangzhouChina 63 works
  10. 10 CambridgeUnited States 54 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Chevy ChaseUS · 22.1 works42×
  2. WorcesterUS · 27.1 works12×
  3. IrvineUS · 28.4 works7.7×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Aging than the world average.

See Aging on the map

Aging research by country

The best places for Aging research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Aging?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 13.09%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Massachusetts Instit…University of Califo…Harvard UniversityStanford University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Harvard UniversityUnited States 80.5- (#2)12.7%4.1×66 -7.1%
2Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 63.4- (#4)20.2%3.6×13 +19.4%
3Stanford UniversityUnited States 58.9- (#3)11.9%2.1×16 -33.3%
4University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 49.2- (#6)13.5%4.2×16 -17.7%
5Columbia UniversityUnited States 47.8- (#7)15.7%4.1×23 -21.6%
6University of California San DiegoUnited States 45.4- (#9)12.1%5.6×28 +0.4%
7University College LondonUnited Kingdom 42.4- (#13)10.1%3.5×29 +26.5%
8University of California, BerkeleyUnited States 35.4- (#15)14.3%3.5×17 +15.8%
9Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 33.2- (#16)11.5%2.3×18 +31.1%
10University of PennsylvaniaUnited States 31.9- (#17)8.9%4.6×25 +4.4%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), citation excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Aging, country by country

Is Aging research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 11% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Aging as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.024% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Aging0.025% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Aging over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Aging10.5% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

What does Aging include?

Questions people ask

Who leads research on aging?

By volume in 2022-now, Harvard University publishes the most Aging research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Chinese Academy of Sciences. On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, China and the United Kingdom rank highest in Aging. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.9k and 1.2k works in 2022-now).

All 1,273 questions in the Question Catalogue

Discussion

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