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Subfield · Immunology and Microbiology

Microbiology research

Microbiology is a subfield of Immunology and Microbiology. Science Explorer counts 144k 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: study of microscopic organisms.

Research works
144k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
14k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
6
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+9%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
29% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Microbiology (Immunology and Microbiology)

What is Microbiology research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Antimicrobial Peptides, Host Defense, Sexually Transmitted Infections, Vaginal Microbiome, Mycoplasma, Pasteurella. Gaining share since 2011-15: Microbiology, Sustainable Development Goals. Losing share: Endoscope, Infection.

▲ 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 12 words, with their numbers
  1. Antimicrobial Peptides7,726◆ 1.11×1 topic
  2. Host Defense7,726◆ 1.11×1 topic
  3. Sexually Transmitted Infections6,912◆ 1.00×1 topic
  4. Vaginal Microbiome6,912◆ 1.00×1 topic
  5. Mycoplasma5,737◆ 0.96×1 topic
  6. Pasteurella5,737◆ 0.96×1 topic
  7. Bacterial Meningitis5,389◆ 0.96×1 topic
  8. Neisseria meningitidis5,389◆ 0.96×1 topic
  9. Endoscope2,390▼ 0.84×1 topic
  10. Infection2,390▼ 0.84×1 topic
  11. Microbiology432▲ 1.49×1 topic
  12. Sustainable Development Goals432▲ 1.49×1 topic

Which countries lead Microbiology research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, China and the United Kingdom rank highest in Microbiology. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (4.9k and 4.7k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 0.95× citation excellence · 1.84× journals · 100% breadth 10.3% top 10% · 3.9k works
  2. 2 China #2 all time 1.33× citation excellence · 1.07× journals · 100% breadth 15.1% top 10% · 4.1k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #3 all time 1.23× citation excellence · 1.54× journals · 100% breadth 13.2% top 10% · 864 works
  4. 4 Germany #4 all time 1.17× citation excellence · 1.55× journals · 100% breadth 9.9% top 10% · 647 works
  5. 5 France #5 all time 1.19× citation excellence · 1.47× journals · 100% breadth 10.8% top 10% · 595 works
  6. 6 Australia #6 all time 1.25× citation excellence · 1.34× journals · 100% breadth 13.5% top 10% · 542 works
  7. 7 Netherlands #8 all time 1.46× citation excellence · 1.59× journals · 100% breadth 16.0% top 10% · 252 works
  8. 8 Canada #9 all time 1.16× citation excellence · 1.15× journals · 100% breadth 11.5% top 10% · 460 works
  9. 9 Spain #12 all time 1.05× citation excellence · 0.96× journals · 100% breadth 9.4% top 10% · 515 works
  10. 10 Italy #15 all time 1.29× citation excellence · 0.53× journals · 100% breadth 11.9% top 10% · 566 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 22 countries ranked in Microbiology. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Microbiology

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 4.9k works
  2. 2 United States 4.7k works
  3. 3 India 1.6k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 1k works
  5. 5 Brazil 907 works
  6. 6 Germany 779 works
  7. 7 Japan 750 works
  8. 8 France 692 works
  9. 9 Italy 671 works
  10. 10 Australia 655 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: 29.3%United States: 28.1%India: 9.7%United Kingdom: 6.3%6 others listed: 26.6%29%largest
China4,896 · 29.3%United States4,703 · 28.1%India1,624 · 9.7%United Kingdom1,047 · 6.3%6 others listed4,454 · 26.6%

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

Which institutions lead Microbiology research?

Harvard University (United States) ranks first in Microbiology on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and United States Department of Health and Human Services.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard University United States · Cambridge · #1 all time 18.8% top 10% · 81 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #9 all time 16.7% top 10% · 109 works
  3. 3 United States Department of Health and Human Services United States · Washington · #2 all time 14.5% top 10% · 72 works
  4. 4 Sichuan University China · Chengdu · #35 all time 23.3% top 10% · 79 works
  5. 5 Zhejiang University China · Hangzhou · #48 all time 20.7% top 10% · 91 works
  6. 6 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China · Shanghai · #31 all time 21.1% top 10% · 64 works
  7. 7 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #10 all time 11.6% top 10% · 101 works
  8. 8 Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences China · Beijing 16.0% top 10% · 118 works
  9. 9 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States · Chapel Hill · #20 all time 6.6% top 10% · 76 works
  10. 10 Russian Academy of Sciences Russia · Moscow 4.2% 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 10 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Microbiology.

Top 100 Microbiology institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesChina 141 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 138 works
  3. 3 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 124 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 118 works
  5. 5 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 107 works
  6. 6 Zhejiang UniversityChina 106 works
  7. 7 Harvard UniversityUnited States 103 works
  8. 8 Sichuan UniversityChina 91 works
  9. 9 United States Department of Health and Human ServicesUnited States 80 works
  10. 10 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 75 works

Who are the leading researchers in Microbiology?

Counting only their work in Microbiology, Robert E. W. Hancock, Magnus Unemo and King K. Holmes have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Robert E. W. Hancock Canada · #12,041 worldwide overall 69.4 of 136 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Magnus Unemo Sweden · #102,791 worldwide overall 57.3 of 238 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 King K. Holmes United States · #30,712 worldwide overall 41.6 of 110 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Tomas Ganz United States · #5,993 worldwide overall 36.2 of 68 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Richard L. Gallo United States · #21,500 worldwide overall 33.0 of 71 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Robert I. Lehrer United States · #14,134 worldwide overall 30.8 of 76 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 J. Thomas Grayston United States · #36,939 worldwide overall 29.4 of 63 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Rino Rappuoli Italy · #25,732 worldwide overall 31.4 of 108 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Ray Borrow United Kingdom · #142,446 worldwide overall 37.3 of 170 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Roberto J. Romero United States · #31,361 worldwide overall 24.3 of 45 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Microbiology alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 672,809 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 Microbiology researchers

What are the most cited papers in Microbiology?

The most cited paper in Microbiology is "DADA2: High-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data" (Benjamin J. Callahan, Paul J. McMurdie, Michael Rosen et al., 2016), with 37,958 citations. Next come "Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Kill Bacteria" (10,383) and "Antimicrobial peptides of multicellular organisms" (8,479).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 DADA2: High-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data Benjamin J. Callahan, Paul J. McMurdie, Michael Rosen et al. · Nature Methods Open access 23 May 2016 37,958
2 Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Kill Bacteria Volker Brinkmann, Ulrike Reichard, Christian Goosmann et al. · Science 4 Mar 2004 10,383
3 Antimicrobial peptides of multicellular organisms MICHAEL A. ZASLOFF · Nature 2002 8,479
4 Genome sequencing in microfabricated high-density picolitre reactors Marcel Margulies et al. · Nature Open access 31 Jul 2005 7,761
5 Methods for in vitro evaluating antimicrobial activity: A review Mounyr Balouiri, Moulay Sadiki, Saâd Ibnsouda Koraichi · Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis Open access 2 Dec 2015 7,292
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Microbiology research done?

The largest centres of Microbiology research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom), Guangzhou (China) and Shanghai (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Kalpatta.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 664 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 325 works
  3. 3 GuangzhouChina 298 works
  4. 4 ShanghaiChina 285 works
  5. 5 ParisFrance 274 works
  6. 6 MoscowRussia 257 works
  7. 7 TokyoJapan 221 works
  8. 8 HangzhouChina 216 works
  9. 9 São PauloBrazil 209 works
  10. 10 SeoulSouth Korea 200 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. KalpattaIN · 20.8 works18×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Microbiology on the map

Microbiology research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Microbiology?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, University of Washington and University of Oxford 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 16.28%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Sichuan UniversityHarvard UniversityUniversity of OxfordUniversity of Washin…
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 82.9#1 (#1)17.3%1.4×103 -20.0%
2University of WashingtonUnited States 56.0- (#4)12.5%2.1×54 -25.2%
3University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 54.3- (#6)13.9%1.5×48 -9.3%
4Sichuan UniversityChina 53.6#4 (#35)21.8%1.8×91 +63.7%
5Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 53.4- (#5)13.2%2.0×70 -32.2%
6Zhejiang UniversityChina 50.9#5 (#48)20.3%1.7×106 +37.8%
7Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 50.5#6 (#31)20.4%1.1×75 +36.5%
8London School of Hygiene & Tropical MedicineUnited Kingdom 49.7- (#12)15.2%8.7×31 -27.5%
9University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 48.5- (#7)14.1%2.2×36 -16.2%
10University College LondonUnited Kingdom 47.8- (#17)14.1%1.4×52 +14.1%

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 Microbiology, country by country

Is Microbiology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 9% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Alexander von Humboldt Studies, Antimicrobial Peptides and Activities and Medical Device Sterilization and Disinfection.

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 Microbiology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.099% in 2024.

still counting0.10%0.20%0.30%Microbiology0.11% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Microbiology 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%Microbiology10.1% 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. Alexander von Humboldt Studies+30%
  2. Antimicrobial Peptides and Activities+12%
  3. Medical Device Sterilization and Disinfection+12%
  4. Reproductive tract infections research+10%
  5. Bacterial Infections and Vaccines+7%
  6. Microbial infections and disease research+4%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

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

What does Microbiology include?

Reproductive tract infec…34kReproductive tract infections research: 34k fractional worksMicrobial infections and…33kMicrobial infections and disease research: 33k fractional worksAntimicrobial Peptides a…33kAntimicrobial Peptides and Activities: 33k fractional worksBacterial Infections and…29kBacterial Infections and Vaccines: 29k fractional worksMedical Device Sterilization and Disinfection: 12k fractional worksAlexander von Humboldt Studies: 1,803 fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.

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Who leads Microbiology, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Microbiology, 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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