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Subfield · Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics

Pharmaceutical Science research

Pharmaceutical Science is a subfield of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics. Science Explorer counts 149k 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: area of study concerned with drugs at every stage, from design to disposition.

Research works
149k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
15k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
5
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+20%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
India
30% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Pharmaceutical Science

What is Pharmaceutical Science research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Chitosan, Nanoparticles, Medicinal Chemistry, Microneedles, Solid Lipid Nanoparticles, Cyclodextrins. Gaining share since 2011-15: Microneedles, Solid Lipid Nanoparticles, Chitosan, Nanoparticles. Losing share: Fluorine, Pharmaceuticals, Medicinal Chemistry.

▲ 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 11 words, with their numbers
  1. Chitosan8,699◆ 1.15×1 topic
  2. Nanoparticles8,699◆ 1.15×1 topic
  3. Medicinal Chemistry7,438▼ 0.76×2 topics
  4. Microneedles7,052▲ 1.40×1 topic
  5. Solid Lipid Nanoparticles7,052▲ 1.40×1 topic
  6. Cyclodextrins5,559◆ 0.88×1 topic
  7. Solid Dispersions5,559◆ 0.88×1 topic
  8. Fluorine4,514▼ 0.67×1 topic
  9. Pharmaceuticals4,514▼ 0.67×1 topic
  10. Deuterium2,924◆ 0.94×1 topic
  11. Drug Discovery2,924◆ 0.94×1 topic

Which countries lead Pharmaceutical Science research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and the United Kingdom rank highest in Pharmaceutical Science. By volume, India and China publish the most (5.6k and 5.2k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #1 all time 1.46× citation excellence · 1.36× journals · 100% breadth 16.5% top 10% · 4.4k works
  2. 2 United States #2 all time 1.08× citation excellence · 1.32× journals · 100% breadth 11.7% top 10% · 2.3k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #5 all time 1.27× citation excellence · 1.28× journals · 100% breadth 13.0% top 10% · 603 works
  4. 4 Germany #3 all time 0.94× citation excellence · 1.33× journals · 100% breadth 8.4% top 10% · 630 works
  5. 5 South Korea #9 all time 1.00× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 11.0% top 10% · 504 works
  6. 6 India #14 all time 0.59× citation excellence · 0.47× journals · 100% breadth 5.6% top 10% · 4.4k works
  7. 7 Canada #6 all time 1.16× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 11.8% top 10% · 253 works
  8. 8 Australia #12 all time 1.34× citation excellence · 1.12× journals · 100% breadth 13.2% top 10% · 215 works
  9. 9 France #7 all time 0.87× citation excellence · 1.05× journals · 100% breadth 7.7% top 10% · 457 works
  10. 10 Spain #13 all time 1.23× citation excellence · 0.94× journals · 100% breadth 10.7% top 10% · 305 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 23 countries ranked in Pharmaceutical Science. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Pharmaceutical Science

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 India 5.6k works
  2. 2 China 5.2k works
  3. 3 United States 2.8k works
  4. 4 Japan 867 works
  5. 5 Russia 739 works
  6. 6 Germany 719 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 708 works
  8. 8 Iran 636 works
  9. 9 South Korea 610 works
  10. 10 Egypt 567 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.

India: 30.4%China: 28.3%United States: 15.1%Japan: 4.7%6 others listed: 21.5%30%largest
India5,620 · 30.4%China5,223 · 28.3%United States2,793 · 15.1%Japan867 · 4.7%6 others listed3,978 · 21.5%

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

Which institutions lead Pharmaceutical Science research?

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

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #1 all time 16.5% top 10% · 230 works
  2. 2 Sichuan University China · Chengdu · #8 all time 20.8% top 10% · 102 works
  3. 3 Zhejiang University China · Hangzhou · #22 all time 28.1% top 10% · 68 works
  4. 4 Sun Yat-sen University China · Guangzhou · #9 all time 21.6% top 10% · 64 works
  5. 5 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #13 all time 7.4% top 10% · 176 works
  6. 6 Shenyang Pharmaceutical University China · Shenyang · #75 all time 14.8% top 10% · 90 works
  7. 7 King Saud University Saudi Arabia · Riyadh 9.7% top 10% · 96 works
  8. 8 Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies India · Mumbai 6.8% top 10% · 74 works
  9. 9 Cairo University Egypt · Giza 17.2% top 10% · 64 works
  10. 10 Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal India · Mumbai 3.4% 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 14 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Pharmaceutical Science.

Top 100 Pharmaceutical Science institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 281 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 261 works
  3. 3 Hindu College of PharmacyIndia 216 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 196 works
  5. 5 Sichuan UniversityChina 119 works
  6. 6 Shenyang Pharmaceutical UniversityChina 105 works
  7. 7 King Saud UniversitySaudi Arabia 104 works
  8. 8 Shri Vile Parle Kelavani MandalIndia 91 works
  9. 9 Narsee Monjee Institute of Management StudiesIndia 89 works
  10. 10 University of BaghdadIraq 81 works

Who are the leading researchers in Pharmaceutical Science?

Counting only their work in Pharmaceutical Science, Mark R. Prausnitz, Róbert Langer and Peter M. Elias have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Mark R. Prausnitz United States · #11,141 worldwide overall 45.4 of 97 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Róbert Langer United States · #654 worldwide overall 44.4 of 88 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Peter M. Elias United States · #19,290 worldwide overall 43.7 of 89 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Marı́a José Alonso Spain · #45,375 worldwide overall 35.7 of 72 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Ryan F. Donnelly United Kingdom · #195,689 worldwide overall 68.1 of 182 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Richard H. Guy United States · #130,120 worldwide overall 39.6 of 140 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Samir Mitragotri United States · #958 worldwide overall 30.7 of 58 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Hans E. Junginger Netherlands · #63,478 worldwide overall 33.3 of 76 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Rainer Helmut Müller Germany · #195,438 worldwide overall 32.8 of 73 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Andreas Bernkop‐Schnürch Austria · #348,353 worldwide overall 42.6 of 195 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Pharmaceutical Science alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 512,544 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 Pharmaceutical Science researchers

What are the most cited papers in Pharmaceutical Science?

The most cited paper in Pharmaceutical Science is "Experimental and computational approaches to estimate solubility and permeability in drug discovery and development settings 1PII of original article: S0169-409X(96)00423-1. The article was originally published in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 23 (1997) 3–25. 1" (Christopher A. Lipinski, Franco Lombardo, Beryl W. Dominy et al., 2001), with 18,154 citations. Next come "Molecular Properties That Influence the Oral Bioavailability of Drug Candidates" (8,390) and "Engineering precision nanoparticles for drug delivery" (7,854).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Experimental and computational approaches to estimate solubility and permeability in drug discovery and development settings 1PII of original article: S0169-409X(96)00423-1. The article was originally published in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 23 (1997) 3–25. 1 Christopher A. Lipinski, Franco Lombardo, Beryl W. Dominy et al. · Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews Review Mar 2001 18,154
2 Molecular Properties That Influence the Oral Bioavailability of Drug Candidates Daniel F. Veber, Stephen R. Johnson, Hung‐Yuan Cheng et al. · Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 11 May 2002 8,390
3 Engineering precision nanoparticles for drug delivery Michael J. Mitchell, Margaret M. Billingsley, Rebecca M. Haley et al. · Nature Reviews Drug Discovery ReviewOpen access 4 Dec 2020 7,854
4 Fluorine in medicinal chemistry Sophie Purser, Peter R. Moore, Steve Swallow et al. · Chemical Society Reviews Review 13 Dec 2007 7,580
5 A simple efficient liquid scintillator for counting aqueous solutions in a liquid scintillation counter George A. Bray · Analytical Biochemistry Dec 1960 7,511
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Pharmaceutical Science research done?

The largest centres of Pharmaceutical Science research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Mumbai (India) and Moscow (Russia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Moga, Alwar and Ahilyanagar.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 611 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 480 works
  3. 3 MumbaiIndia 350 works
  4. 4 MoscowRussia 319 works
  5. 5 NanjingChina 308 works
  6. 6 HangzhouChina 275 works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 273 works
  8. 8 SeoulSouth Korea 265 works
  9. 9 TehranIran 237 works
  10. 10 TokyoJapan 230 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. MogaIN · 38.4 works35×
  2. AlwarIN · 24.9 works35×
  3. AhilyanagarIN · 49.6 works32×
  4. RaebareliIN · 31.9 works20×
  5. SonīpatIN · 225.8 works20×
  6. BrahmapurIN · 38.2 works17×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Pharmaceutical Science on the map

Pharmaceutical Science research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Pharmaceutical Science?

Among universities, judged by research, Sichuan University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Harvard 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 21.63%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Sun Yat-sen UniversitySichuan UniversityUniversity of Chines…Harvard 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
1Sichuan UniversityChina 84.0#2 (#8)20.6%2.2×119 +95.5%
2University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 78.6- (#3)20.5%1.7×65 +15.6%
3Harvard UniversityUnited States 78.5- (#2)19.9%0.7×54 -20.7%
4Sun Yat-sen UniversityChina 75.9#4 (#9)20.7%1.5×74 +14.3%
5Zhejiang UniversityChina 70.1#3 (#22)26.9%1.2×78 +65.7%
6ETH ZurichSwitzerland 67.5- (#4)17.0%1.1×18 -12.6%
7Nankai UniversityChina 66.4- (#10)25.6%3.6×57 +32.0%
8University of MünsterGermany 65.6- (#5)26.0%2.3×24 -30.2%
9Nanjing UniversityChina 63.2- (#14)27.1%1.9×41 +58.0%
10University of MichiganUnited States 62.5- (#6)12.0%1.0×37 -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 Pharmaceutical Science, country by country

Is Pharmaceutical Science research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 20% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Advancements in Transdermal Drug Delivery, Advanced Drug Delivery Systems and Chemical Reactions and Isotopes.

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 Pharmaceutical Science as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.10% in 2024.

still counting0.10%0.20%0.30%Pharmaceutical Science0.11% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Pharmaceutical Science 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%Pharmaceutical Science10.0% 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. Advancements in Transdermal Drug Delivery+37%
  2. Advanced Drug Delivery Systems+22%
  3. Chemical Reactions and Isotopes+20%
  4. Fluorine in Organic Chemistry+17%
  5. Drug Solubulity and Delivery Systems+2%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

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

What does Pharmaceutical Science include?

Fluorine in Organic Chem…41kFluorine in Organic Chemistry: 41k fractional worksAdvanced Drug Delivery S…31kAdvanced Drug Delivery Systems: 31k fractional worksChemical Reactions and Isotopes: 27k fractional worksDrug Solubulity and Delivery Systems: 26k fractional worksAdvancements in Transdermal Drug Delivery: 25k fractional works

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

Share who leads Pharmaceutical Science

Who leads Pharmaceutical Science, on Science Explorer

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

Download the card

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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