Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Discussion
Topic · Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Biotechnology and Related Fields

Biotechnology and Related Fields is a research topic within Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health. Science Explorer counts 21k research works in it since 1950. 10.3% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the development, challenges, and opportunities in global health biotechnology, with a focus on emerging markets and the role of public-private partnerships. It covers topics such as innovation, entrepreneurship, capacity building, intellectual property, and the potential for science-based health innovation in developing countries.

  • Health Biotechnology
  • Global Collaboration
  • Developing Countries
  • Innovation
  • Public-Private Partnerships
  • Emerging Markets
  • Science-Based Health Innovation
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Capacity Building
  • Intellectual Property
Research works
21k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.3%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+18%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
31% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Biotechnology and Related Fields

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

Which countries lead Biotechnology and Related Fields research?

By volume, the United States and Brazil publish the most (776 and 553 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 776 works
  2. 2 Brazil 553 works
  3. 3 India 315 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 280 works
  5. 5 China 207 works
  6. 6 Australia 106 works
  7. 7 Germany 89 works
  8. 8 Canada 77 works
  9. 9 France 74 works
  10. 10 Italy 64 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: 30.5%Brazil: 21.8%India: 12.4%United Kingdom: 11.0%6 others listed: 24.3%31%largest
United States776 · 30.5%Brazil553 · 21.8%India315 · 12.4%United Kingdom280 · 11.0%6 others listed618 · 24.3%

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

Which institutions lead Biotechnology and Related Fields research?

By volume in 2022-now, The Nature Conservancy publishes the most Biotechnology and Related Fields research, followed by Fundação Oswaldo Cruz and Universidade de São Paulo.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 The Nature ConservancyUnited States 31 works
  2. 2 Fundação Oswaldo CruzBrazil 25 works
  3. 3 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 25 works
  4. 4 Universidade Federal do Rio de JaneiroBrazil 21 works
  5. 5 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 18 works
  6. 6 Harvard UniversityUnited States 18 works
  7. 7 CHDI FoundationUnited States 14 works
  8. 8 Department for Work and PensionsUnited Kingdom 14 works
  9. 9 BMJ Group (United Kingdom) 13 works
  10. 10 University of CanberraAustralia 13 works

Who are the leading researchers in Biotechnology and Related Fields?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Biotechnology and Related Fields include David Moher, Rob Knight and John P. A. Ioannidis.

  1. 1 David Moher Canada 898k citations
  2. 2 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  3. 3 John P. A. Ioannidis United States 317k citations
  4. 4 Dan J. Stein South Africa 306k citations
  5. 5 Róbert Langer United States 303k citations
  6. 6 Robert A. Weinberg United States 301k citations
  7. 7 Peter Christian Gøtzsche Denmark 292k citations
  8. 8 Martin McKee United Kingdom 270k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Biotechnology and Related Fields?

The most cited paper in Biotechnology and Related Fields is "Transportation Research Record" (Anne Vingaard Olesen, Erik Kjems, Kristian Hegner Reinau et al., 2016), with 11,437 citations. Next come "Magnitude and complex based diffusion signal reconstruction" (6,753) and "Can the pharmaceutical industry reduce attrition rates?" (4,181).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Transportation Research Record Anne Vingaard Olesen, Erik Kjems, Kristian Hegner Reinau et al. 23 Jul 2016 11,437
2 Magnitude and complex based diffusion signal reconstruction Marco Pizzolato, Ashis Ghosh, Timothé Boutelier et al. · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) Conference paperOpen access 18 Sep 2014 6,753
3 Can the pharmaceutical industry reduce attrition rates? Ismail Kola, John Richard Landis · Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 30 Jul 2004 4,181
4 How to improve R&D productivity: the pharmaceutical industry's grand challenge Steven M. Paul, Daniel S. Mytelka, Christopher T. Dunwiddie et al. · Nature Reviews Drug Discovery Review 19 Feb 2010 3,579
5 Clinical development success rates for investigational drugs Michael Hay, David Wayne Thomas, John L. Craighead et al. · Nature Biotechnology 2014 2,577
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Biotechnology and Related Fields research done?

The largest centres of Biotechnology and Related Fields research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), São Paulo (Brazil) and Beijing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Arlington, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 100 works
  2. 2 Rio de JaneiroBrazil 95 works
  3. 3 São PauloBrazil 93 works
  4. 4 BeijingChina 61 works
  5. 5 New YorkUnited States 54 works
  6. 6 ArlingtonUnited States 38 works
  7. 7 Washington D.C.United States 37 works
  8. 8 New DelhiIndia 36 works
  9. 9 BrasíliaBrazil 27 works
  10. 10 MoscowRussia 27 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ArlingtonUS · 38.3 works16×
  2. Rio de JaneiroBR · 94.8 works8.8×
  3. BrasíliaBR · 27.3 works5.9×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Biotechnology and Related Fields than the world average.

See Biotechnology and Related Fields on the map

Where is the best place to study Biotechnology and Related Fields?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, University of Cape Town and Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro 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%mean 15.75%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Cape T…Johns Hopkins Univer…Harvard UniversityUniversidade Federal…
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.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Harvard UniversityUnited States 66.314.0%1.8×18 +64.8%
2University of Cape TownSouth Africa 63.832.2%8.0×9 -2.6%
3Universidade Federal do Rio de JaneiroBrazil 57.810.5%8.5×20 +18.6%
4Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 56.920.7%2.4×11 +160.1%
5University of the WitwatersrandSouth Africa 54.923.9%6.0×8 +52.1%
6Universidade de São PauloBrazil 54.25.5%3.9×25 +12.6%
7University of TorontoCanada 49.213.6%1.5×10 +54.2%
8University of CanberraAustralia 45.45.9%25.9×13 +65.7%
9University College LondonUnited Kingdom 37.913.1%1.7×8 +17.5%
10Peking UniversityChina 37.418.1%1.5×10 +126.2%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Biotechnology and Related Fields, country by country

Is Biotechnology and Related Fields research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 18% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Biotechnology and Related Fields.

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 Biotechnology and Related Fields as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Biotechnology and Related Fields0.016% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Biotechnology and Related Fields 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%Biotechnology and Related Fields10.5% 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.

Discussion

Ask a question or share a note about Biotechnology and Related Fields. Posts are plain text and can be reported.