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Subfield · Health Professions

Pharmacy research

Pharmacy is a subfield of Health Professions. Science Explorer counts 112k 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: science that studies the chemical, pharmacological and pharmaceutical properties of drugs.

Research works
112k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
11k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
5
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+6%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
35% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Pharmacy

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

What is Pharmacy research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Defensive Medicine, Malpractice Risk, Obesity Stigma, Weight Bias, Colic, Infant Crying. Gaining share since 2011-15: Family Caregivers, Self-Care.

▲ 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 10 words, with their numbers
  1. Defensive Medicine7,418◆ 0.95×1 topic
  2. Malpractice Risk7,418◆ 0.95×1 topic
  3. Obesity Stigma6,063◆ 0.94×1 topic
  4. Weight Bias6,063◆ 0.94×1 topic
  5. Colic4,726◆ 1.06×1 topic
  6. Infant Crying4,726◆ 1.06×1 topic
  7. Drug-Induced3,938◆ 1.04×1 topic
  8. Gingival Overgrowth3,938◆ 1.04×1 topic
  9. Family Caregivers2,273▲ 1.17×1 topic
  10. Self-Care2,273▲ 1.17×1 topic

Which countries lead Pharmacy research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, the United Kingdom and China rank highest in Pharmacy. By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (4.4k and 1.4k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 1.07× citation excellence · 1.58× journals · 100% breadth 12.1% top 10% · 4k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom #2 all time 0.96× citation excellence · 1.43× journals · 100% breadth 11.4% top 10% · 1.3k works
  3. 3 China #8 all time 1.52× citation excellence · 1.04× journals · 100% breadth 20.9% top 10% · 896 works
  4. 4 Germany #3 all time 1.44× citation excellence · 1.40× journals · 100% breadth 9.1% top 10% · 503 works
  5. 5 Australia #4 all time 1.39× citation excellence · 1.19× journals · 100% breadth 16.3% top 10% · 531 works
  6. 6 Canada #5 all time 1.25× citation excellence · 1.19× journals · 100% breadth 13.9% top 10% · 489 works
  7. 7 Spain #6 all time 1.12× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 8.3% top 10% · 682 works
  8. 8 Netherlands #7 all time 1.41× citation excellence · 1.44× journals · 100% breadth 13.3% top 10% · 213 works
  9. 9 France #10 all time 1.15× citation excellence · 1.26× journals · 100% breadth 9.4% top 10% · 321 works
  10. 10 Italy #12 all time 1.74× citation excellence · 0.67× journals · 100% breadth 21.7% top 10% · 398 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 21 countries ranked in Pharmacy. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Pharmacy

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 4.4k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 1.4k works
  3. 3 Brazil 1.3k works
  4. 4 India 1.3k works
  5. 5 China 1k works
  6. 6 Spain 824 works
  7. 7 Türkiye 764 works
  8. 8 Australia 590 works
  9. 9 Indonesia 573 works
  10. 10 Germany 557 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: 34.6%United Kingdom: 11.1%Brazil: 10.3%India: 10.1%6 others listed: 33.9%35%largest
United States4,417 · 34.6%United Kingdom1,422 · 11.1%Brazil1,320 · 10.3%India1,286 · 10.1%6 others listed4,335 · 33.9%

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

Which institutions lead Pharmacy research?

Harvard University (United States) ranks first in Pharmacy on research quality in 2022-now, followed by University of Toronto and Universidad Regional Autónoma de Los Andes.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard University United States · Cambridge · #1 all time 20.6% top 10% · 142 works
  2. 2 University of Toronto Canada · Toronto · #9 all time 15.7% top 10% · 64 works
  3. 3 Universidad Regional Autónoma de Los Andes Ecuador · Ambato 1.4% top 10% · 67 works
  4. 4 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States · Chapel Hill · #26 all time 5.3% top 10% · 72 works
  5. 5 University of Birmingham United Kingdom · Birmingham · #99 all time 2.9% top 10% · 70 works
  6. 6 Universidade de São Paulo Brazil · São Paulo 6.6% top 10% · 64 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 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Pharmacy.

Top 100 Pharmacy institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard UniversityUnited States 153 works
  2. 2 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 81 works
  3. 3 University of BirminghamUnited Kingdom 73 works
  4. 4 University of TorontoCanada 71 works
  5. 5 Universidad Regional Autónoma de Los AndesEcuador 70 works
  6. 6 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 70 works
  7. 7 Mexican Social Security InstituteMexico 64 works
  8. 8 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 62 works
  9. 9 University of MichiganUnited States 61 works
  10. 10 Yale UniversityUnited States 52 works

Who are the leading researchers in Pharmacy?

Counting only their work in Pharmacy, Rebecca M. Puhl, Dianne Neumark‐Sztainer and Thomas A. Wadden have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Rebecca M. Puhl United States · #5,554 worldwide overall 43.5 of 87 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Dianne Neumark‐Sztainer United States · #8,556 worldwide overall 37.6 of 72 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Thomas A. Wadden United States · #10,258 worldwide overall 26.9 of 66 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Barbara J. Riegel United States · #23,291 worldwide overall 23.8 of 40 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Ruth Feldman Israel · #9,207 worldwide overall 19.2 of 28 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Marc Alexander Benninga Netherlands · #74,027 worldwide overall 21.8 of 54 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Susan Jessica Paxton Australia · #15,176 worldwide overall 17.7 of 35 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Janet D. Latner United States · #46,514 worldwide overall 17.8 of 38 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Rena R. Wing United States · #33,567 worldwide overall 18.4 of 58 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Jan Potempa Poland · #123,433 worldwide overall 15.0 of 38 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Pharmacy alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 470,657 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 Pharmacy researchers

What are the most cited papers in Pharmacy?

The most cited paper in Pharmacy is "Impact of Informing Overweight Individuals about the Role of Genetics in Obesity: An Online Experimental Study" (Natalie C. Lippa, Saskia C. Sanderson, 2013), with 6,093 citations. Next come "A Surgical Safety Checklist to Reduce Morbidity and Mortality in a Global Population" (5,713) and "Development of a Classification System for Periodontal Diseases and Conditions" (5,147).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Impact of Informing Overweight Individuals about the Role of Genetics in Obesity: An Online Experimental Study Natalie C. Lippa, Saskia C. Sanderson · Human Heredity 2013 6,093
2 A Surgical Safety Checklist to Reduce Morbidity and Mortality in a Global Population Alex Bernard Haynes, Thomas G. Weiser, William R. Berry et al. · New England Journal of Medicine Open access 14 Jan 2009 5,713
3 Development of a Classification System for Periodontal Diseases and Conditions Gary C. Armitage · Annals of Periodontology Open access Dec 1999 5,147
4 The three-factor eating questionnaire to measure dietary restraint, disinhibition and hunger Albert J. Stunkard, Samuel Messick · Journal of Psychosomatic Research 1985 4,737
5 Incidence of Adverse Events and Negligence in Hospitalized Patients Troyen A. Brennan, Lucian L. Leape, Nan M. Laird et al. · New England Journal of Medicine Open access 7 Feb 1991 4,679
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Pharmacy research done?

The largest centres of Pharmacy research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), São Paulo (Brazil), Istanbul (Türkiye) and New York (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in London, Ambato and Ciudad Victoria.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 365 works
  2. 2 São PauloBrazil 236 works
  3. 3 IstanbulTürkiye 195 works
  4. 4 New YorkUnited States 188 works
  5. 5 MadridSpain 180 works
  6. 6 BostonUnited States 171 works
  7. 7 Mexico CityMexico 167 works
  8. 8 BeijingChina 141 works
  9. 9 MelbourneAustralia 136 works
  10. 10 BogotáColombia 123 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. London46.4 works14×
  2. AmbatoEC · 109.4 works13×
  3. Ciudad VictoriaMX · 27.3 works13×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Pharmacy on the map

Pharmacy research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Pharmacy?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and University of Toronto 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 16.82%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Johns Hopkins Univer…Harvard UniversityUniversity of Pennsy…University of Toronto
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 85.9#1 (#1)19.9%2.7×153 +4.1%
2Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 59.9- (#2)20.0%2.2×62 -12.5%
3University of TorontoCanada 55.6#2 (#9)15.4%1.9×71 -9.1%
4University of PennsylvaniaUnited States 52.3- (#4)18.4%2.5×48 -8.9%
5Yale UniversityUnited States 51.1- (#6)14.1%2.6×52 +6.9%
6Stanford UniversityUnited States 50.7- (#3)14.1%1.5×40 -20.0%
7University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 47.3- (#5)18.2%2.4×31 -23.2%
8University of MichiganUnited States 46.9- (#7)13.0%2.2×61 -6.7%
9University College LondonUnited Kingdom 45.9- (#8)17.2%1.6×47 -23.2%
10University of WashingtonUnited States 44.6- (#10)17.9%1.6×34 +6.5%

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 Pharmacy, country by country

Is Pharmacy research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 6% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Nursing care and research, Obesity and Health Practices and Infant Health and Development.

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 Pharmacy as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.094% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Pharmacy0.088% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Pharmacy 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%Pharmacy10.2% 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.

  1. Nursing care and research+16%
  2. Obesity and Health Practices+12%
  3. Infant Health and Development+9%
  4. Oral and gingival health research+6%
  5. Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues-2%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

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

What does Pharmacy include?

Medical Malpractice and …36kMedical Malpractice and Liability Issues: 36k fractional worksObesity and Health Pract…26kObesity and Health Practices: 26k fractional worksInfant Health and Development: 23k fractional worksOral and gingival health research: 19k fractional worksNursing care and research: 8,176 fractional works

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

Share who leads Pharmacy

Who leads Pharmacy, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Pharmacy, 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

Questions people ask

Where is the best place to study pharmacy?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and University of Toronto 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.

See the full answer
All 1,273 questions in the Question Catalogue

Discussion

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