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Subfield · Medicine

Microbiology research

Microbiology is a subfield of Medicine. Science Explorer counts 7.8k 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: study of microscopic organisms.

Research works
7.8k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
784
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
1
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+20%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
32% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Microbiology (Medicine)

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

Which countries lead Microbiology research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States rank highest in Microbiology. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (306 and 191 works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 0.63× excellence · 1.53× journals · 100% breadth 10.3% top 10% · 254 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 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 United States 306 works
  2. 2 China 191 works
  3. 3 India 166 works
  4. 4 Japan 85 works
  5. 5 Brazil 48 works
  6. 6 Spain 40 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 38 works
  8. 8 Germany 32 works
  9. 9 Italy 31 works
  10. 10 France 31 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: 31.6%China: 19.7%India: 17.2%Japan: 8.8%6 others listed: 22.8%32%largest
United States306 · 31.6%China191 · 19.7%India166 · 17.2%Japan85 · 8.8%6 others listed220 · 22.8%

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

Which institutions lead Microbiology research?

By volume in 2022-now, Mayo Clinic publishes the most Microbiology research, followed by All India Institute of Medical Sciences and University of Khartoum.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Mayo ClinicUnited States 19 works
  2. 2 All India Institute of Medical SciencesIndia 18 works
  3. 3 University of KhartoumSudan 13 works
  4. 4 Capital Medical UniversityChina 6 works
  5. 5 Zhejiang UniversityChina 6 works
  6. 6 Erasmus University RotterdamNetherlands 6 works
  7. 7 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 5 works
  8. 8 Sichuan UniversityChina 5 works
  9. 9 United States Department of Veterans AffairsUnited States 5 works
  10. 10 Banaras Hindu UniversityIndia 5 works

Who are the leading researchers in Microbiology?

Counting only their work in Microbiology, Ahmed Hassan Fahal, Wendy W. J. van de Sande and Erko Stackebrandt have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Ahmed Hassan Fahal Sudan · #309,735 worldwide overall 33.5 of 79 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Wendy W. J. van de Sande Netherlands · #237,869 worldwide overall 21.0 of 40 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Erko Stackebrandt Germany · #136,545 worldwide overall 10.7 of 22 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Michael Goodfellow United Kingdom · #1,108,791 worldwide overall 18.5 of 60 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Richard J. Wallace United States · #28,569 worldwide overall 7.6 of 16 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Barbara A. Brown‐Elliott United States · #64,379 worldwide overall 5.5 of 10 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Blaine L. Beaman United States · #690,158 worldwide overall 7.8 of 34 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Ruth E. Gordon United States · #328,660 worldwide overall 4.8 of 6 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 David Lebeaux France · #159,421 worldwide overall 5.5 of 15 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Peter Schümann Germany · #2,963,096 worldwide overall 6.4 of 19 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 61,745 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 "Methods for characterization of Streptomyces species" (E. B. SHIRLING, David J. Gottlieb, 1966), with 5,791 citations. Next come "Complete genome sequence of the model actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2)" (3,297) and "Proposed minimal standards for the use of genome data for the taxonomy of prokaryotes" (3,167).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Methods for characterization of Streptomyces species E. B. SHIRLING, David J. Gottlieb · International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology Jul 1966 5,791
2 Complete genome sequence of the model actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) Stephen D. Bentley et al. · Nature May 2002 3,297
3 Proposed minimal standards for the use of genome data for the taxonomy of prokaryotes Jongsik Chun, Aharon Oren, António Ventosa et al. · INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY Open access 2018 3,167
4 List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) moves to the DSMZ Aidan C. Parte, J. Sarda Carbasse, Jan P. Meier‐Kolthoff et al. · INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY Open access 23 Jul 2020 2,045
5 Proposal for a New Hierarchic Classification System, Actinobacteria classis nov. Erko Stackebrandt, F. A. RAINEY, Naomi L. Ward-Rainey · International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology Apr 1997 1,731
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), Tokyo (Japan), Khartoum (Sudan) and New Delhi (India).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 28 works
  2. 2 TokyoJapan 20 works
  3. 3 KhartoumSudan 18 works
  4. 4 New DelhiIndia 18 works
  5. 5 Mexico CityMexico 14 works
  6. 6 GuangzhouChina 14 works
  7. 7 São PauloBrazil 14 works
  8. 8 HangzhouChina 13 works
  9. 9 ChennaiIndia 13 works
  10. 10 ParisFrance 11 works
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, University of Khartoum and All India Institute of Medical Sciences score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of KhartoumSudan 55.021.2%167.1×13 +0.2%
2All India Institute of Medical SciencesIndia 39.53.3%13.2×18 +18.0%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Microbiology, country by country

Is Microbiology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 20% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Actinomycetales infections and treatment.

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, 0.0060% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Microbiology0.0057% 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%Microbiology10.2% 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 Microbiology include?

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