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Subfield · Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics

Toxicology research

Toxicology is a subfield of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics. Science Explorer counts 68k research works in it since 1950. 17.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: scientific study of the harmful effects that chemicals, substances, or situations can have on living organisms and the environment.

Research works
68k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
12k
per year above
Top-10% rate
17.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
4
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+12%
the tick is no change

What is Toxicology research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2019–23, its most used keywords are Drug Analysis, Forensic Toxicology, Quinones, Toxicology, Adverse Drug Reactions, Pharmacovigilance. Gaining share since 2009–13: Adverse Drug Reactions, Pharmacovigilance, Drug Analysis, Forensic Toxicology. Losing share: Organoselenium Compounds, Selenium Reagents, Quinones, Toxicology.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2019–23 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2009–13. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 8 words, with their numbers
  1. Drug Analysis4,651▲ 1.16×1 topic
  2. Forensic Toxicology4,651▲ 1.16×1 topic
  3. Quinones4,012▼ 0.82×1 topic
  4. Toxicology4,012▼ 0.82×1 topic
  5. Adverse Drug Reactions3,364▲ 1.31×1 topic
  6. Pharmacovigilance3,364▲ 1.31×1 topic
  7. Organoselenium Compounds750▼ 0.59×1 topic
  8. Selenium Reagents750▼ 0.59×1 topic

Which countries lead Toxicology research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, the United States, China and India rank highest in Toxicology. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (2k and 1.6k works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States · #1 all time 21.4% top 10% · 2k works
  2. 2 China · #3 all time 23.7% top 10% · 1.6k works
  3. 3 India · #8 all time 12.7% top 10% · 1.1k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom · #2 all time 21.8% top 10% · 381 works
  5. 5 Italy · #7 all time 22.2% top 10% · 305 works
  6. 6 Canada · #5 all time 26.0% top 10% · 270 works
  7. 7 Australia · #6 all time 21.5% top 10% · 265 works
  8. 8 France · #9 all time 12.7% top 10% · 354 works
  9. 9 Germany · #4 all time 14.6% top 10% · 303 works
  10. 10 Spain · #11 all time 16.8% top 10% · 250 works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 15 countries ranked in Toxicology. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Toxicology

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 2k works
  2. 2 China 1.6k works
  3. 3 India 1.1k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 381 works
  5. 5 France 354 works
  6. 6 Brazil 312 works
  7. 7 Japan 305 works
  8. 8 Italy 305 works
  9. 9 Germany 303 works
  10. 10 Canada 270 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: 29.2%China: 23.2%India: 15.3%United Kingdom: 5.5%6 others listed: 26.8%29%largest
United States2,017 · 29.2%China1,603 · 23.2%India1,060 · 15.3%United Kingdom381 · 5.5%6 others listed1,849 · 26.8%

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

Which institutions lead Toxicology research?

By volume in 2022–2025, King Saud University publishes the most Toxicology research, followed by Inserm and Johns Hopkins University.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 King Saud UniversitySaudi Arabia 28 works
  2. 2 InsermFrance 26 works
  3. 3 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 25 works
  4. 4 Harvard UniversityUnited States 24 works
  5. 5 University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 24 works
  6. 6 Sichuan UniversityChina 24 works
  7. 7 China Pharmaceutical UniversityChina 23 works
  8. 8 University of TorontoCanada 23 works
  9. 9 Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical CollegeChina 23 works
  10. 10 Yale UniversityUnited States 22 works

Who are the leading researchers in Toxicology?

Among the most productive authors in Toxicology, Jasvinder A. Singh, Louisa Degenhardt and Maarten J. Postma rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 Jasvinder A. Singh United States · #79 worldwide 4.7k citations · 154 works
  2. 2 Louisa Degenhardt Australia · #80 worldwide 5.7k citations · 164 works
  3. 3 Maarten J. Postma Netherlands · #90 worldwide 4.6k citations · 251 works
  4. 4 Peter A. Kollman United States · #128 worldwide 6.3k citations · 134 works
  5. 5 Félix Carvalho Portugal · #172 worldwide 4.6k citations · 125 works
  6. 6 Bharat B. Aggarwal United States · #202 worldwide 4.2k citations · 117 works
  7. 7 Reza Majdzadeh Iran · #540 worldwide 3.7k citations · 100 works
  8. 8 Don C. Des Jarlais United States · #628 worldwide 4k citations · 101 works
  9. 9 Mohammad Alì Mansournia Iran · #739 worldwide 4.2k citations · 95 works
  10. 10 Luigi Naldi Italy · #1,995 worldwide 4.7k citations · 74 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 3,678 highest-output authors in Toxicology. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Toxicology researchers

Where is Toxicology research done?

The largest centres of Toxicology research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Paris (France) and London (United Kingdom). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Silver Spring.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 182 works
  2. 2 Shanghai China 122 works
  3. 3 Paris France 116 works
  4. 4 London United Kingdom 112 works
  5. 5 New York United States 103 works
  6. 6 Tokyo Japan 103 works
  7. 7 Seoul South Korea 93 works
  8. 8 Guangzhou China 89 works
  9. 9 New Delhi India 84 works
  10. 10 Riyadh Saudi Arabia 83 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Silver SpringUS · 26.0 works12×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Toxicology on the map

Toxicology research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Toxicology?

Among universities, judged by research, China Pharmaceutical University, University of California, San Francisco and Al-Azhar University 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.

0%20%40%60%mean 29.64%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →China Pharmaceutical University: 23, 23.7%University of California, San Francisco: 24, 36.2%Al-Azhar University: 11, 51.4%Harvard University: 24, 34.1%King Saud University: 28, 19.3%University of Copenhagen: 20, 30.1%Delhi Pharmaceutical Science and Research University: 11, 21.5%Johns Hopkins University: 25, 30.5%Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research: 15, 18.6%University of Oxford: 12, 31.0%Al-Azhar UniversityUniversity of Califo…Harvard UniversityChina Pharmaceutical…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 China Pharmaceutical UniversityChina 60.423.7%10.5×23 +21.1%
2 University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 54.436.2%3.7×24 +24.2%
3 Al-Azhar UniversityEgypt 51.851.4%2.6×11 +60.0%
4 Harvard UniversityUnited States 51.134.1%1.9×24 +35.9%
5 King Saud UniversitySaudi Arabia 49.719.3%3.0×28 +30.1%
6 University of CopenhagenDenmark 48.230.1%2.8×20 +19.3%
7 Delhi Pharmaceutical Science and Research UniversityIndia 46.921.5%33.0×11 +0.8%
8 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 46.630.5%2.2×25 +7.4%
9 Academy of Scientific and Innovative ResearchIndia 46.418.6%4.4×15 +439.4%
10 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 45.831.0%0.9×12 +188.9%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Toxicology research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 12% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Pharmacovigilance and Adverse Drug Reactions, Forensic Toxicology and Drug Analysis and Bioactive Compounds and Antitumor Agents.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

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. Pharmacovigilance and Adverse Drug Reactions+129%
  2. Forensic Toxicology and Drug Analysis+72%
  3. Bioactive Compounds and Antitumor Agents+28%
  4. Organoselenium and organotellurium chemistry-56%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2005–09 to 2015–19. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Toxicology include?

Bioactive Compounds and …25kBioactive Compounds and Antitumor Agents: 25k fractional worksForensic Toxicology and …22kForensic Toxicology and Drug Analysis: 22k fractional worksPharmacovigilance and Ad…14kPharmacovigilance and Adverse Drug Reactions: 14k fractional worksOrganoselenium and organotellurium chemistry: 6,979 fractional works

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