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Subfield · Immunology and Microbiology

Virology research

Virology is a subfield of Immunology and Microbiology. Science Explorer counts 90k 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: study of viruses.

Research works
90k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
9k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
3
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+11%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
39% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Virology

What is Virology research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are AIDS, HIV, Rabies, Virus, Monkeypox Virus, Smallpox Vaccination. Gaining share since 2011-15: Monkeypox Virus, Smallpox Vaccination, Rabies, Virus. Losing share: AIDS, HIV.

▲ 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 6 words, with their numbers
  1. AIDS7,107▼ 0.64×1 topic
  2. HIV7,107▼ 0.64×1 topic
  3. Rabies4,814▲ 1.47×1 topic
  4. Virus4,814▲ 1.47×1 topic
  5. Monkeypox Virus3,718▲ 2.8×1 topic
  6. Smallpox Vaccination3,718▲ 2.8×1 topic

Which countries lead Virology research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany rank highest in Virology. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (3.5k and 1.5k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 1.02× citation excellence · 1.55× journals · 100% breadth 11.1% top 10% · 3.1k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom #2 all time 1.42× citation excellence · 1.63× journals · 100% breadth 14.1% top 10% · 482 works
  3. 3 Germany #3 all time 1.49× citation excellence · 1.60× journals · 100% breadth 11.8% top 10% · 296 works
  4. 4 China #6 all time 1.15× citation excellence · 0.83× journals · 100% breadth 13.0% top 10% · 1.3k works
  5. 5 France #4 all time 1.26× citation excellence · 1.55× journals · 100% breadth 11.5% top 10% · 384 works
  6. 6 Australia #7 all time 1.39× citation excellence · 1.14× journals · 100% breadth 16.6% top 10% · 242 works
  7. 7 Canada #8 all time 1.05× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 9.8% top 10% · 269 works
  8. 8 Spain #10 all time 1.10× citation excellence · 1.00× journals · 100% breadth 10.8% top 10% · 302 works
  9. 9 Italy #17 all time 1.09× citation excellence · 0.48× journals · 100% breadth 11.5% top 10% · 323 works
  10. 10 South Africa #11 all time 1.18× citation excellence · 0.53× journals · 100% breadth 12.4% top 10% · 219 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 countries ranked in Virology. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Virology

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 3.5k works
  2. 2 China 1.5k works
  3. 3 India 1.1k works
  4. 4 Brazil 587 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 556 works
  6. 6 France 441 works
  7. 7 Italy 384 works
  8. 8 Spain 343 works
  9. 9 Germany 342 works
  10. 10 Canada 303 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: 38.9%China: 16.6%India: 11.9%Brazil: 6.5%6 others listed: 26.1%39%largest
United States3,533 · 38.9%China1,507 · 16.6%India1,080 · 11.9%Brazil587 · 6.5%6 others listed2,370 · 26.1%

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

Which institutions lead Virology research?

Harvard University (United States) ranks first in Virology on research quality in 2022-now, followed by National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard University United States · Cambridge · #1 all time 20.3% top 10% · 100 works
  2. 2 National Institutes of Health United States · Bethesda · #2 all time 16.1% top 10% · 109 works
  3. 3 Johns Hopkins University United States · Baltimore · #4 all time 12.8% top 10% · 81 works
  4. 4 United States Department of Health and Human Services United States · Washington · #7 all time 15.8% top 10% · 70 works
  5. 5 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #18 all time 12.5% top 10% · 62 works
  6. 6 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States · Chapel Hill · #35 all time 3.8% top 10% · 130 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 Virology.

Top 100 Virology institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 151 works
  2. 2 National Institutes of HealthUnited States 123 works
  3. 3 Harvard UniversityUnited States 114 works
  4. 4 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 91 works
  5. 5 United States Department of Health and Human ServicesUnited States 76 works
  6. 6 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 71 works
  7. 7 InsermFrance 62 works
  8. 8 Emory UniversityUnited States 58 works
  9. 9 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 58 works
  10. 10 Cornell UniversityUnited States 55 works

Who are the leading researchers in Virology?

Counting only their work in Virology, Steven G. Deeks, Bruce D. Walker and John R. Mascola have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Steven G. Deeks United States · #7,345 worldwide overall 94.8 of 244 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Bruce D. Walker United States · #16,651 worldwide overall 95.7 of 256 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 John R. Mascola United States · #1,519 worldwide overall 76.0 of 174 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 David C. Montefiori United States · #37,049 worldwide overall 90.7 of 330 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Dennis R. Burton United States · #1,812 worldwide overall 70.2 of 133 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Beatrice H. Hahn United States · #6,091 worldwide overall 71.0 of 149 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Barton F. Haynes United States · #12,067 worldwide overall 64.5 of 171 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 John Philip Moore United States · #13,441 worldwide overall 60.4 of 137 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Robert F. Siliciano United States · #14,774 worldwide overall 60.2 of 139 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Bette Korber United States · #8,251 worldwide overall 56.3 of 134 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Virology alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 390,165 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 Virology researchers

What are the most cited papers in Virology?

The most cited paper in Virology is "AutoDock4 and AutoDockTools4: Automated docking with selective receptor flexibility" (Garrett M. Morris, Ruth Huey, William Lindstrom et al., 2009), with 25,864 citations. Next come "Prevention of HIV-1 Infection with Early Antiretroviral Therapy" (7,006) and "1993 Revised Classification System for HIV Infection and Expanded Surveillance Case Definition for AIDS Among Adolescents and Adults" (4,364).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 AutoDock4 and AutoDockTools4: Automated docking with selective receptor flexibility Garrett M. Morris, Ruth Huey, William Lindstrom et al. · Journal of Computational Chemistry Open access 27 Apr 2009 25,864
2 Prevention of HIV-1 Infection with Early Antiretroviral Therapy Myron S. Cohen et al. · New England Journal of Medicine Open access 18 Jul 2011 7,006
3 1993 Revised Classification System for HIV Infection and Expanded Surveillance Case Definition for AIDS Among Adolescents and Adults Kenneth G. Castro, Jill Ward, Laurence Slutsker et al. · Clinical Infectious Diseases Oct 1993 4,364
4 Rapid turnover of plasma virions and CD4 lymphocytes in HIV-1 infection David D. Ho, Avidan Uriel Neumann, Alan S. Perelson et al. · Nature 1995 4,310
5 Reduction of Maternal-Infant Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 with Zidovudine Treatment Edward M. Connor, RHODA S. SPERLING, Richard D. Gelber et al. · New England Journal of Medicine Open access 3 Nov 1994 3,755
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Virology research done?

The largest centres of Virology research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Paris (France), London (United Kingdom) and New York (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Frederick.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 331 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 208 works
  3. 3 LondonUnited Kingdom 208 works
  4. 4 New YorkUnited States 169 works
  5. 5 AtlantaUnited States 155 works
  6. 6 Chapel HillUnited States 150 works
  7. 7 São PauloBrazil 134 works
  8. 8 MadridSpain 123 works
  9. 9 BaltimoreUnited States 122 works
  10. 10 BethesdaUnited States 122 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. FrederickUS · 24.0 works25×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Virology on the map

Virology research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Virology?

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 14.9%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Harvard UniversityUniversity of Califo…University of OxfordJohns Hopkins Univer…
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 84.6#1 (#1)20.0%3.0×114 -21.1%
2Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 61.1#3 (#4)12.3%4.8×91 -17.4%
3University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 53.1- (#5)16.4%5.2×45 -34.4%
4University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 50.7- (#6)14.8%2.2×38 -29.6%
5Rockefeller UniversityUnited States 46.3- (#23)20.3%18.7×14 +43.3%
6Cornell UniversityUnited States 45.4- (#14)12.7%3.4×55 +8.6%
7University of California San DiegoUnited States 45.2- (#9)11.2%3.9×46 -32.0%
8University of PennsylvaniaUnited States 45.1- (#11)12.0%3.2×41 -6.0%
9Yale UniversityUnited States 43.6- (#12)16.6%2.3×31 -4.1%
10Emory UniversityUnited States 43.2- (#15)12.7%6.0×58 -9.3%

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 Virology, country by country

Is Virology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 11% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Poxvirus research and outbreaks and Rabies epidemiology and control.

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 Virology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.055% in 2024.

still counting0.10%0.20%Virology0.056% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Virology 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%Virology10.0% 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. Poxvirus research and outbreaks+213%
  2. Rabies epidemiology and control+9%
  3. HIV Research and Treatment-20%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

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

What does Virology include?

Share who leads Virology

Who leads Virology, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Virology, 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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