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Subfield · Medicine

Biochemistry research

Biochemistry is a subfield of Medicine. Science Explorer counts 133k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: study of chemical processes in living organisms.

Research works
133k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
13k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
3
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+13%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
33% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Biochemistry (Medicine)

This ranks research output and citation impact. It says nothing about the quality of diagnosis, treatment or care.

What is Biochemistry research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Antioxidants, Oxidative Stress, Free Radicals, Polyphenols, Carotenoids, Lipid Peroxidation. Gaining share since 2011-15: Free Radicals, Polyphenols. Losing share: Carotenoids, Lipid Peroxidation.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2021-25 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2011-15. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 8 words, with their numbers
  1. Antioxidants29k◆ 1.01×2 topics
  2. Oxidative Stress29k◆ 1.01×2 topics
  3. Free Radicals22k▲ 1.21×1 topic
  4. Polyphenols22k▲ 1.21×1 topic
  5. Carotenoids6,912▼ 0.67×1 topic
  6. Lipid Peroxidation6,912▼ 0.67×1 topic
  7. Blood Transfusion5,144◆ 0.95×1 topic
  8. Hemorrhage5,144◆ 0.95×1 topic

Which countries lead Biochemistry research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and the United Kingdom rank highest in Biochemistry. By volume, China and India publish the most (5.7k and 2.7k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #2 all time 1.42× citation excellence · 1.03× journals · 100% breadth 15.1% top 10% · 5.2k works
  2. 2 United States #1 all time 1.06× citation excellence · 1.58× journals · 100% breadth 11.8% top 10% · 2.1k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #5 all time 1.20× citation excellence · 1.44× journals · 100% breadth 13.0% top 10% · 406 works
  4. 4 Spain #3 all time 1.11× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 12.0% top 10% · 726 works
  5. 5 Germany #4 all time 1.07× citation excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth 9.4% top 10% · 408 works
  6. 6 Australia #8 all time 1.39× citation excellence · 1.19× journals · 100% breadth 14.5% top 10% · 305 works
  7. 7 Canada #7 all time 1.28× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 12.5% top 10% · 328 works
  8. 8 Italy #9 all time 1.31× citation excellence · 0.67× journals · 100% breadth 13.9% top 10% · 821 works
  9. 9 France #6 all time 1.08× citation excellence · 1.26× journals · 100% breadth 9.9% top 10% · 394 works
  10. 10 India #13 all time 0.70× citation excellence · 0.44× journals · 100% breadth 6.7% top 10% · 2.3k 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 28 countries ranked in Biochemistry. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Biochemistry

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 5.7k works
  2. 2 India 2.7k works
  3. 3 United States 2.5k works
  4. 4 Türkiye 1.4k works
  5. 5 Brazil 1.3k works
  6. 6 Italy 916 works
  7. 7 Indonesia 884 works
  8. 8 Spain 808 works
  9. 9 South Korea 747 works
  10. 10 Poland 678 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.

China: 32.5%India: 15.2%United States: 14.2%Türkiye: 7.9%6 others listed: 30.2%33%largest
China5,712 · 32.5%India2,674 · 15.2%United States2,489 · 14.2%Türkiye1,389 · 7.9%6 others listed5,299 · 30.2%

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

Which institutions lead Biochemistry research?

Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (China) ranks first in Biochemistry on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhejiang University.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences China · Beijing · #7 all time 18.1% top 10% · 354 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #4 all time 16.0% top 10% · 114 works
  3. 3 Zhejiang University China · Hangzhou · #8 all time 18.5% top 10% · 77 works
  4. 4 Northwest A&F University China · Yangling · #13 all time 20.2% top 10% · 72 works
  5. 5 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs China · Beijing · #35 all time 20.0% top 10% · 113 works
  6. 6 China Agricultural University China · Beijing · #14 all time 21.0% top 10% · 62 works
  7. 7 Nanchang University China · Nanchang · #43 all time 21.2% top 10% · 92 works
  8. 8 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Spain · Madrid · #6 all time 10.2% top 10% · 80 works
  9. 9 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #18 all time 9.1% top 10% · 69 works
  10. 10 Council of Scientific and Industrial Research India · New Delhi 8.7% top 10% · 60 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 15 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Biochemistry.

Top 100 Biochemistry institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesChina 379 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 140 works
  3. 3 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 124 works
  4. 4 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural AffairsChina 120 works
  5. 5 Indian Council of Agricultural ResearchIndia 117 works
  6. 6 Nanchang UniversityChina 98 works
  7. 7 Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 90 works
  8. 8 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasSpain 89 works
  9. 9 King Saud UniversitySaudi Arabia 85 works
  10. 10 Zhejiang UniversityChina 85 works

Who are the leading researchers in Biochemistry?

Counting only their work in Biochemistry, Francisco Abraham Tomás-Barberán, Alan Crozier and Barry B. Halliwell have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Francisco Abraham Tomás-Barberán Spain · #11,160 worldwide overall 32.0 of 73 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Alan Crozier United Kingdom · #27,594 worldwide overall 29.7 of 72 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Barry B. Halliwell United Kingdom · #4,372 worldwide overall 27.2 of 63 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Gary Williamson United Kingdom · #45,943 worldwide overall 24.4 of 65 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Hua‐Bin Li China · #3,798 worldwide overall 21.0 of 32 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Joseph Lee Witztum United States · #1,631 worldwide overall 22.3 of 48 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Walter Churchill Willett United States · #177 worldwide overall 23.0 of 58 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Aedín Cassidy United Kingdom · #14,675 worldwide overall 18.4 of 36 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Helmut Sies Germany · #37,108 worldwide overall 21.7 of 61 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Augustin Scalbert France · #24,132 worldwide overall 19.5 of 52 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Biochemistry alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 583,368 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 Biochemistry researchers

What are the most cited papers in Biochemistry?

The most cited paper in Biochemistry is "Short-Term Effects of Nose-Only Cigarette Smoke Exposure on Glutathione Redox Homeostasis, Cytochrome P450 1A1/2 and Respiratory Enzyme Activities in Mice Tissues" (Haider Raza, Annie John, Abderrahim Nemmar, 2013), with 47,289 citations. Next come "Assay for lipid peroxides in animal tissues by thiobarbituric acid reaction" (29,425) and "Antioxidant activity applying an improved ABTS radical cation decolorization assay" (26,207).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Short-Term Effects of Nose-Only Cigarette Smoke Exposure on Glutathione Redox Homeostasis, Cytochrome P450 1A1/2 and Respiratory Enzyme Activities in Mice Tissues Haider Raza, Annie John, Abderrahim Nemmar · Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry Open access 2013 47,289
2 Assay for lipid peroxides in animal tissues by thiobarbituric acid reaction Hiroshi Ohkawa, Nobuko Ohishi, Kunio Yagi · Analytical Biochemistry Jun 1979 29,425
3 Antioxidant activity applying an improved ABTS radical cation decolorization assay Roberta Re, Nicoletta Pellegrini, Anna R. Proteggente et al. · Free Radical Biology and Medicine May 1999 26,207
4 Use of a free radical method to evaluate antioxidant activity Wendy Brand-Williams, Marie‐Elisabeth Cuvelier, Claudette Berset · LWT Open access 1995 25,846
5 Free Radicals in the Physiological Control of Cell Function Wulf Dröge · Physiological Reviews Review 2002 9,887
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Biochemistry research done?

The largest centres of Biochemistry research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Guangzhou (China), Hangzhou (China) and Seoul (South Korea). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Wushan.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 813 works
  2. 2 GuangzhouChina 297 works
  3. 3 HangzhouChina 268 works
  4. 4 SeoulSouth Korea 263 works
  5. 5 NanjingChina 223 works
  6. 6 TehranIran 216 works
  7. 7 IstanbulTürkiye 204 works
  8. 8 MoscowRussia 197 works
  9. 9 New DelhiIndia 184 works
  10. 10 ShanghaiChina 180 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. WushanCN · 29.1 works18×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Biochemistry on the map

Biochemistry research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Biochemistry?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Zhejiang University and Northwest A&F 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 16.21%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →China Agricultural U…Northwest A&F Univer…Harvard UniversityZhejiang 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 83.2- (#1)17.7%0.8×66 -2.9%
2Zhejiang UniversityChina 74.2#3 (#8)17.4%1.2×85 +18.8%
3Northwest A&F UniversityChina 70.7#4 (#13)20.1%7.7×76 +22.8%
4China Agricultural UniversityChina 65.4#6 (#14)20.3%4.8×67 +35.4%
5Cornell UniversityUnited States 65.1- (#3)15.0%1.1×36 -16.4%
6University of California San DiegoUnited States 59.3- (#5)16.2%0.6×14 +22.6%
7Nanchang UniversityChina 57.6#7 (#43)20.9%5.2×98 +29.0%
8University of TorontoCanada 53.4- (#11)14.1%0.8×42 -8.6%
9Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 53.2- (#9)13.5%1.0×39 -12.3%
10University of California, DavisUnited States 51.0- (#10)6.9%1.9×38 -11.1%

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 Biochemistry, country by country

Is Biochemistry research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 13% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Phytochemicals and Antioxidant Activities and Blood transfusion and management.

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 Biochemistry as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.12% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Biochemistry0.12% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Biochemistry 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%Biochemistry10.0% 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.

  1. Phytochemicals and Antioxidant Activities+19%
  2. Blood transfusion and management+13%
  3. Antioxidant Activity and Oxidative Stress-2%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Biochemistry include?

Share who leads Biochemistry

Who leads Biochemistry, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Biochemistry, for a post or a slide.

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1200 × 630 PNG, sized for social posts, drawn from the latest snapshot.

The leading institutions' badges6Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Discussion

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