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Subfield · Neuroscience

Biological Psychiatry research

Biological Psychiatry is a subfield of Neuroscience. Science Explorer counts 44k 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: approach to psychiatry that aims to understand mental disorder in terms of the biological function of the nervous system.

Research works
44k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4.4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
1
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+32%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
40% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Biological Psychiatry

Which countries lead Biological Psychiatry research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, China and the United Kingdom rank highest in Biological Psychiatry. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (3.9k and 2.5k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 0.96× citation excellence · 1.98× journals · 100% breadth 10.1% top 10% · 2.2k works
  2. 2 China #2 all time 1.20× citation excellence · 0.76× journals · 100% breadth 12.2% top 10% · 3.3k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #3 all time 1.14× citation excellence · 1.73× journals · 100% breadth 11.6% top 10% · 344 works
  4. 4 Germany #4 all time 1.05× citation excellence · 1.68× journals · 100% breadth 8.6% top 10% · 362 works
  5. 5 Canada #5 all time 1.05× citation excellence · 1.21× journals · 100% breadth 9.3% top 10% · 288 works
  6. 6 Australia #8 all time 1.12× citation excellence · 1.17× journals · 100% breadth 10.0% top 10% · 214 works
  7. 7 Spain #11 all time 1.03× citation excellence · 0.87× journals · 100% breadth 9.9% top 10% · 261 works
  8. 8 Italy #13 all time 1.29× citation excellence · 0.56× journals · 100% breadth 12.5% top 10% · 361 works
  9. 9 South Korea #12 all time 0.97× citation excellence · 0.76× journals · 100% breadth 9.1% top 10% · 258 works
  10. 10 Japan #14 all time 0.66× citation excellence · 0.92× journals · 100% breadth 5.8% top 10% · 343 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 16 countries ranked in Biological Psychiatry. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Biological Psychiatry

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 3.9k works
  2. 2 United States 2.5k works
  3. 3 India 553 works
  4. 4 Italy 420 works
  5. 5 Germany 411 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 392 works
  7. 7 Japan 383 works
  8. 8 Russia 368 works
  9. 9 Canada 330 works
  10. 10 Brazil 302 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: 40.4%United States: 26.5%India: 5.8%Italy: 4.4%6 others listed: 22.9%40%largest
China3,862 · 40.4%United States2,528 · 26.5%India553 · 5.8%Italy420 · 4.4%6 others listed2,187 · 22.9%

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

Which institutions lead Biological Psychiatry research?

Harvard University (United States) ranks first in Biological Psychiatry on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard University United States · Cambridge · #1 all time 14.2% top 10% · 105 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #6 all time 13.7% top 10% · 66 works
  3. 3 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China · Shanghai · #20 all time 13.0% top 10% · 68 works
  4. 4 University of Toronto Canada · Toronto · #11 all time 7.5% top 10% · 67 works
  5. 5 Sichuan University China · Chengdu 10.5% top 10% · 63 works
  6. 6 Capital Medical University China · Beijing · #31 all time 12.5% top 10% · 64 works
  7. 7 Russian Academy of Sciences Russia · Moscow · #33 all time 3.3% top 10% · 122 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 7 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Biological Psychiatry.

Top 100 Biological Psychiatry institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 129 works
  2. 2 Harvard UniversityUnited States 119 works
  3. 3 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 80 works
  4. 4 University of TorontoCanada 77 works
  5. 5 Capital Medical UniversityChina 72 works
  6. 6 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 72 works
  7. 7 Sichuan UniversityChina 71 works
  8. 8 Nanjing Medical UniversityChina 65 works
  9. 9 Zhejiang UniversityChina 64 works
  10. 10 Central South UniversityChina 63 works

Who are the leading researchers in Biological Psychiatry?

Counting only their work in Biological Psychiatry, John F. Cryan, Timothy G. Dinan and Michael Berk have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 John F. Cryan Ireland · #7,253 worldwide overall 34.9 of 93 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Timothy G. Dinan Ireland · #21,592 worldwide overall 31.0 of 78 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Michael Berk Australia · #73,323 worldwide overall 33.0 of 144 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Ronald S. Duman United States · #3,866 worldwide overall 21.7 of 46 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Gerard A. Clarke Ireland · #12,004 worldwide overall 20.9 of 45 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Carlos A. Zarate United States · #14,266 worldwide overall 23.2 of 76 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Carmine Maria Pariante United Kingdom · #57,067 worldwide overall 25.5 of 104 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Andrew H. Miller United States · #45,786 worldwide overall 21.7 of 72 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Bruce S. McEwen United States · #3,557 worldwide overall 16.3 of 32 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Eduard Vieta Spain · #47,617 worldwide overall 20.4 of 78 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Biological Psychiatry alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 277,543 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 Biological Psychiatry researchers

What are the most cited papers in Biological Psychiatry?

The most cited paper in Biological Psychiatry is "The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for Schizophrenia" (Stanley R. Kay, Abraham Fiszbein, Lewis A. Opler, 1987), with 21,651 citations. Next come "Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome" (12,195) and "Molecular Mechanisms of Depression: Perspectives on New Treatment Strategies" (8,499).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for Schizophrenia Stanley R. Kay, Abraham Fiszbein, Lewis A. Opler · Schizophrenia Bulletin Open access 1987 21,651
2 Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome Curtis Huttenhower et al. · Nature Open access248 authors Jun 2012 12,195
3 Molecular Mechanisms of Depression: Perspectives on New Treatment Strategies Undine Emmi Lang, Stefan Borgwardt · Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry Open access 2013 8,499
4 Biological insights from 108 schizophrenia-associated genetic loci Stephan Ripke et al. · Nature Open access297 authors Jul 2014 8,181
5 From inflammation to sickness and depression: when the immune system subjugates the brain Robert Dantzer, Jason C. O’Connor, Gregory G. Freund et al. · Nature reviews. Neuroscience ReviewOpen access 12 Dec 2007 7,434
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Biological Psychiatry research done?

The largest centres of Biological Psychiatry research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Guangzhou (China), Shanghai (China) and Moscow (Russia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Cork.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 465 works
  2. 2 GuangzhouChina 249 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 242 works
  4. 4 MoscowRussia 171 works
  5. 5 NanjingChina 165 works
  6. 6 LondonUnited Kingdom 151 works
  7. 7 ChengduChina 150 works
  8. 8 WuhanChina 148 works
  9. 9 HangzhouChina 147 works
  10. 10 ChangshaChina 136 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. CorkIE · 29.7 works6.1×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Biological Psychiatry on the map

Biological Psychiatry research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Biological Psychiatry?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Yale University 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%5%10%15%mean 11.45%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Stanford UniversityHarvard UniversityYale UniversityJohns Hopkins Univer…
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 86.0#1 (#1)13.8%3.2×119 +15.6%
2Yale UniversityUnited States 49.2- (#3)10.7%2.8×35 -21.5%
3Stanford UniversityUnited States 47.0- (#5)14.1%1.9×32 +24.8%
4Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 46.4- (#4)10.6%2.4×42 -2.9%
5University of California, Los AngelesUnited States 44.3- (#7)13.2%2.9×38 +16.7%
6University of TorontoCanada 40.8#4 (#11)8.1%3.3×77 -13.5%
7Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 39.4#3 (#20)13.1%2.4×80 +44.5%
8University of California San DiegoUnited States 37.0- (#8)8.7%3.3×38 -2.6%
9McGill UniversityCanada 35.6- (#12)9.8%3.0×35 -2.5%
10Columbia UniversityUnited States 35.4- (#10)12.4%2.2×28 +3.1%

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 Biological Psychiatry, country by country

Is Biological Psychiatry research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 32% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Tryptophan and brain disorders.

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 Biological Psychiatry as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.054% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Biological Psychiatry0.058% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Biological Psychiatry 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%Biological Psychiatry9.8% 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 Biological Psychiatry include?

Share who leads Biological Psychiatry

Who leads Biological Psychiatry, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Biological Psychiatry, 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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