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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. 10.0% 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%
6.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
4
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+14%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
30% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Toxicology

What is Toxicology research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Drug Analysis, Forensic Toxicology, Quinones, Toxicology, Adverse Drug Reactions, Pharmacovigilance. Gaining share since 2011-15: Adverse Drug Reactions, Pharmacovigilance. 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 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 8 words, with their numbers
  1. Drug Analysis4,882◆ 1.08×1 topic
  2. Forensic Toxicology4,882◆ 1.08×1 topic
  3. Quinones4,043▼ 0.80×1 topic
  4. Toxicology4,043▼ 0.80×1 topic
  5. Adverse Drug Reactions4,042▲ 1.34×1 topic
  6. Pharmacovigilance4,042▲ 1.34×1 topic
  7. Organoselenium Compounds840▼ 0.68×1 topic
  8. Selenium Reagents840▼ 0.68×1 topic

Which countries lead Toxicology research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, China and the United Kingdom rank highest in Toxicology. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (2.5k and 1.9k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 1.13× citation excellence · 1.80× journals · 100% breadth 12.0% top 10% · 2k works
  2. 2 China #2 all time 1.28× citation excellence · 1.33× journals · 100% breadth 13.9% top 10% · 1.6k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #4 all time 1.21× citation excellence · 1.44× journals · 100% breadth 12.7% top 10% · 381 works
  4. 4 Canada #5 all time 1.36× citation excellence · 1.33× journals · 100% breadth 13.8% top 10% · 270 works
  5. 5 France #7 all time 0.96× citation excellence · 1.21× journals · 100% breadth 7.5% top 10% · 354 works
  6. 6 Germany #3 all time 0.89× citation excellence · 1.42× journals · 100% breadth 7.1% top 10% · 303 works
  7. 7 Australia #8 all time 1.15× citation excellence · 1.12× journals · 100% breadth 12.1% top 10% · 265 works
  8. 8 Spain #10 all time 1.07× citation excellence · 1.04× journals · 100% breadth 8.7% top 10% · 250 works
  9. 9 Italy #13 all time 1.20× citation excellence · 0.63× journals · 100% breadth 11.9% top 10% · 305 works
  10. 10 India #14 all time 0.67× citation excellence · 0.50× journals · 100% breadth 6.5% top 10% · 1.1k 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 15 countries ranked in Toxicology. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Toxicology

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 2.5k works
  2. 2 China 1.9k works
  3. 3 India 1.2k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 473 works
  5. 5 France 420 works
  6. 6 Brazil 370 works
  7. 7 Germany 362 works
  8. 8 Japan 357 works
  9. 9 Italy 355 works
  10. 10 Canada 332 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: 29.9%China: 23.2%India: 14.9%United Kingdom: 5.7%6 others listed: 26.4%30%largest
United States2,486 · 29.9%China1,930 · 23.2%India1,237 · 14.9%United Kingdom473 · 5.7%6 others listed2,197 · 26.4%

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

Which institutions lead Toxicology research?

Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia) ranks first in Toxicology on research quality in 2022-now, followed by .

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russian Academy of Sciences Russia · Moscow · #38 all time 3.2% top 10% · 72 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 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Toxicology.

Top 100 Toxicology institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 80 works
  2. 2 Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz UniversitySaudi Arabia 67 works
  3. 3 Harvard UniversityUnited States 67 works
  4. 4 InsermFrance 59 works
  5. 5 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 57 works
  6. 6 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 52 works
  7. 7 University of TorontoCanada 51 works
  8. 8 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 47 works
  9. 9 Sichuan UniversityChina 45 works
  10. 10 University of British ColumbiaCanada 38 works

Who are the leading researchers in Toxicology?

Counting only their work in Toxicology, Marilyn Ann Huestis, Yves G. Pommier and Leroy F. Liu have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Marilyn Ann Huestis United States · #124,012 worldwide overall 32.5 of 119 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Yves G. Pommier United States · #32,748 worldwide overall 17.4 of 55 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Leroy F. Liu United States · #28,757 worldwide overall 15.0 of 28 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 David Westfall Bates United States · #12,274 worldwide overall 15.9 of 43 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Edward J. Cone United States · #200,858 worldwide overall 16.4 of 50 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Vincenzo Di Marzo Italy · #22,576 worldwide overall 14.2 of 31 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Matthias E. Liechti Switzerland · #66,059 worldwide overall 16.2 of 55 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 David A. Boothman United States · #94,855 worldwide overall 12.3 of 27 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Louisa J Degenhardt Australia · #15,168 worldwide overall 13.0 of 38 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Joseph J. Palamar United States · #68,599 worldwide overall 13.7 of 46 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Toxicology alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 369,046 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 Toxicology researchers

What are the most cited papers in Toxicology?

The most cited paper in Toxicology is "A method for estimating the probability of adverse drug reactions" (C. A. Naranjo, U. Busto, Edward M. Sellers et al., 1981), with 11,879 citations. Next come "Chemistry and biochemistry of 4-hydroxynonenal, malonaldehyde and related aldehydes" (6,700) and "Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients" (4,842).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A method for estimating the probability of adverse drug reactions C. A. Naranjo, U. Busto, Edward M. Sellers et al. · Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics Aug 1981 11,879
2 Chemistry and biochemistry of 4-hydroxynonenal, malonaldehyde and related aldehydes Hermann Esterbauer, Rudolf Jörg Schaur, Helmward Zöllner · Free Radical Biology and Medicine 1991 6,700
3 Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients Jason Lazarou, Bruce H. Pomeranz, Paul Corey · JAMA 15 Apr 1998 4,842
4 NITRIC OXIDE AND MACROPHAGE FUNCTION John D. MacMicking, Q W Xie, Carl Nathan · Annual Review of Immunology Review Apr 1997 4,227
5 Crosstalk of reactive oxygen species and NF-κB signaling Michael J Morgan, Zheng-gang Liu · Cell Research Open access 28 Dec 2010 3,489
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Toxicology research done?

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

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 216 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 140 works
  3. 3 ParisFrance 138 works
  4. 4 ShanghaiChina 138 works
  5. 5 New YorkUnited States 127 works
  6. 6 TokyoJapan 120 works
  7. 7 SeoulSouth Korea 108 works
  8. 8 GuangzhouChina 104 works
  9. 9 New DelhiIndia 97 works
  10. 10 RiyadhSaudi Arabia 93 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Al KharjSA · 67.5 works20×
  2. Silver SpringUS · 29.5 works11×
← 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

Where is the best place to study Toxicology?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and University of California, San Francisco 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 17.13%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Califo…Johns Hopkins Univer…Harvard UniversityYale 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
1Harvard UniversityUnited States 81.9- (#1)17.6%1.9×68 -5.4%
2Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 68.0- (#3)17.7%2.7×47 +38.1%
3University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 59.9- (#5)23.2%4.2×33 +38.6%
4Yale UniversityUnited States 52.8- (#6)13.9%2.7×33 +81.6%
5University of TorontoCanada 52.6- (#8)16.5%2.2×51 +27.1%
6Columbia UniversityUnited States 48.9- (#7)19.1%1.9×23 +8.6%
7University of California San DiegoUnited States 44.4- (#9)17.8%2.2×24 +10.2%
8University of PennsylvaniaUnited States 39.3- (#11)13.0%2.0×24 +12.9%
9University of California, Los AngelesUnited States 37.2- (#14)16.8%1.5×19 +44.6%
10Karolinska InstitutetSweden 36.1- (#15)15.7%3.0×19 -16.5%

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 Toxicology, country by country

Is Toxicology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 14% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Pharmacovigilance and Adverse Drug Reactions, Organoselenium and organotellurium chemistry and Forensic Toxicology and Drug Analysis.

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 Toxicology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.050% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%Toxicology0.055% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Toxicology 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%Toxicology10.0% 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. Pharmacovigilance and Adverse Drug Reactions+29%
  2. Organoselenium and organotellurium chemistry+24%
  3. Forensic Toxicology and Drug Analysis+10%
  4. Bioactive Compounds and Antitumor Agents+3%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. 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.

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Who leads Toxicology, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Toxicology, 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' badges1Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Discussion

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