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Developmental Biology research

Developmental Biology is a subfield of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology. Science Explorer counts 33k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: explores the processes by which individual organisms grow and develop (ontogeny).

Research works
33k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
2
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+10%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
35% of the 10 largest, 2022-now

Which countries lead Developmental Biology research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom rank highest in Developmental Biology. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.3k and 509 works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 0.93× citation excellence · 1.40× journals · 100% breadth 10.6% top 10% · 1.1k works
  2. 2 Germany #2 all time 1.50× citation excellence · 1.78× journals · 100% breadth 12.7% top 10% · 228 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #3 all time 1.34× citation excellence · 1.43× journals · 100% breadth 13.7% top 10% · 274 works
  4. 4 France #4 all time 1.32× citation excellence · 1.26× journals · 100% breadth 13.5% top 10% · 214 works
  5. 5 China #8 all time 0.89× citation excellence · 0.72× journals · 100% breadth 12.8% top 10% · 434 works
  6. 6 India #13 all time 0.54× citation excellence · 0.34× journals · 100% breadth 4.5% top 10% · 296 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 6 countries ranked in Developmental Biology. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Developmental Biology

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.3k works
  2. 2 China 509 works
  3. 3 India 361 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 323 works
  5. 5 Germany 268 works
  6. 6 France 251 works
  7. 7 Japan 209 works
  8. 8 Canada 203 works
  9. 9 Australia 169 works
  10. 10 Brazil 163 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: 35.1%China: 13.4%India: 9.5%United Kingdom: 8.5%6 others listed: 33.4%35%largest
United States1,330 · 35.1%China509 · 13.4%India361 · 9.5%United Kingdom323 · 8.5%6 others listed1,263 · 33.4%

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

Which institutions lead Developmental Biology research?

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) ranks first in Developmental Biology on research quality in 2022-now, followed by .

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #8 all time 14.4% top 10% · 75 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 1 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Developmental Biology.

Top 100 Developmental Biology institutions

Who are the leading researchers in Developmental Biology?

Counting only their work in Developmental Biology, Klaus Zuberbühler, Peter Marler and Fernando Nottebohm have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Klaus Zuberbühler United Kingdom · #18,751 worldwide overall 31.7 of 85 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Peter Marler United States · #10,004 worldwide overall 24.1 of 48 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Fernando Nottebohm United States · #7,916 worldwide overall 23.4 of 49 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Robert M. Seyfarth United States · #8,058 worldwide overall 19.8 of 32 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Dorothy L. Cheney United States · #6,580 worldwide overall 18.3 of 30 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Erich D. Jarvis United States · #8,048 worldwide overall 17.0 of 36 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Carel P. van Schaik Switzerland · #2,827 worldwide overall 16.2 of 34 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Peter Lloyd Tyack United States · #19,979 worldwide overall 15.6 of 35 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 W. Tecumseh Fitch Austria · #47,784 worldwide overall 16.4 of 46 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Christophe Boesch Germany · #11,596 worldwide overall 14.3 of 31 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Developmental Biology alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 119,001 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 Developmental Biology researchers

What are the most cited papers in Developmental Biology?

The most cited paper in Developmental Biology is "BORIS : a free, versatile open‐source event‐logging software for video/audio coding and live observations" (Olivier Friard, Marco Gamba, 2016), with 3,591 citations. Next come "The motor theory of speech perception revised" (2,864) and "CLINICAL ASSESSMENT OF BODY HAIR GROWTH IN WOMEN" (2,522).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 BORIS : a free, versatile open‐source event‐logging software for video/audio coding and live observations Olivier Friard, Marco Gamba · Methods in Ecology and Evolution Open access 4 May 2016 3,591
2 The motor theory of speech perception revised Alvin M. Liberman, Ignatius G. Mattingly · Cognition Oct 1985 2,864
3 CLINICAL ASSESSMENT OF BODY HAIR GROWTH IN WOMEN DAVID G. FERRIMAN, J. D. GALLWEY · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Nov 1961 2,522
4 Natural language and natural selection Steven A. Pinker, Paul Bloom · Behavioral and Brain Sciences Dec 1990 2,478
5 Sonic hedgehog mediates the polarizing activity of the ZPA Robert D. Riddle, Randy L. Johnson, Ed Laufer et al. · Cell Dec 1993 2,358
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Developmental Biology research done?

The largest centres of Developmental Biology research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Paris (France), New York (United States) and Tokyo (Japan). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in St Andrews.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 96 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 92 works
  3. 3 New YorkUnited States 66 works
  4. 4 TokyoJapan 61 works
  5. 5 LondonUnited Kingdom 49 works
  6. 6 MoscowRussia 40 works
  7. 7 ViennaAustria 37 works
  8. 8 Washington D.C.United States 35 works
  9. 9 IthacaUnited States 32 works
  10. 10 São PauloBrazil 32 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. St AndrewsGB · 26.7 works23×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Developmental Biology on the map

Developmental Biology research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Developmental Biology?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Cornell University and Duke 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%30%mean 16.73%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of St And…Harvard UniversityCornell UniversityDuke 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 80.9- (#2)20.2%1.3×20 -23.8%
2Cornell UniversityUnited States 70.0- (#4)15.0%5.5×35 -11.4%
3Duke UniversityUnited States 66.9- (#3)13.9%3.9×15 -20.0%
4University of St AndrewsUnited Kingdom 56.6- (#10)23.2%26.0×27 -12.9%
5University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 56.6- (#6)16.1%2.4×16 -13.2%
6University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 43.0- (#7)13.1%1.7×10 -28.9%
7University of WashingtonUnited States 42.0- (#9)11.4%3.1×17 -17.8%
8University of ZurichSwitzerland 36.7-16.4%5.5×18 +23.7%
9Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 35.8- (#12)12.6%2.0×15 +11.8%
10Dalhousie UniversityCanada 35.6-25.4%7.5×13 +74.8%

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 Developmental Biology, country by country

Is Developmental Biology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 10% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Congenital limb and hand anomalies and Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior.

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 Developmental Biology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.021% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Developmental Biology0.023% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Developmental Biology 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%Developmental Biology10.2% 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 Developmental Biology include?

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Who leads Developmental Biology, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Developmental Biology, 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' badges1Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

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