Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Discussion
Topic · Organic Chemistry

Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis

Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis is a research topic within Organic Chemistry. Science Explorer counts 56k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the chemical glycobiology, focusing on glycosidase inhibitors, oligosaccharide synthesis, carbohydrate vaccines, glycoprotein synthesis, iminosugars, enzymatic glycoside synthesis, glycosylation mechanisms, carbohydrate-based drug design, automated synthesis, and anticancer vaccines.

  • Glycosidase Inhibitors
  • Oligosaccharide Synthesis
  • Carbohydrate Vaccines
  • Glycoprotein Synthesis
  • Iminosugars
  • Enzymatic Glycoside Synthesis
  • Glycosylation Mechanisms
  • Carbohydrate-Based Drug Design
  • Automated Synthesis
  • Anticancer Vaccines
Research works
56k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
5.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-10%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
34% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis

Which countries lead Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (971 and 569 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 971 works
  2. 2 United States 569 works
  3. 3 India 336 works
  4. 4 Japan 304 works
  5. 5 Germany 164 works
  6. 6 France 143 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 117 works
  8. 8 Russia 107 works
  9. 9 Italy 90 works
  10. 10 Canada 86 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.

China: 33.6%United States: 19.7%India: 11.6%Japan: 10.5%6 others listed: 24.5%34%largest
China971 · 33.6%United States569 · 19.7%India336 · 11.6%Japan304 · 10.5%6 others listed708 · 24.5%

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

Which institutions lead Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 86 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 68 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 68 works
  4. 4 Jiangnan UniversityChina 36 works
  5. 5 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 25 works
  6. 6 Council of Scientific and Industrial ResearchIndia 24 works
  7. 7 Sichuan UniversityChina 21 works
  8. 8 Banaras Hindu UniversityIndia 21 works
  9. 9 Max Planck SocietyGermany 20 works
  10. 10 Academy of Scientific and Innovative ResearchIndia 19 works

Who are the leading researchers in Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis include Jun Wang, Róbert Langer and Richard A. Gibbs.

  1. 1 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  2. 2 Róbert Langer United States 303k citations
  3. 3 Richard A. Gibbs United States 292k citations
  4. 4 John Q. Trojanowski United States 286k citations
  5. 5 Chris Sander United States 276k citations
  6. 6 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  7. 7 Wei Huang China 267k 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 Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis?

The most cited paper in Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis is "The Carbohydrate-Active EnZymes database (CAZy): an expert resource for Glycogenomics" (Brandi L. Cantarel, P. M. Coutinho, Corinne Rancurel et al., 2008), with 6,110 citations. Next come "Glycosylation in cancer: mechanisms and clinical implications" (3,210) and "A classification of glycosyl hydrolases based on amino acid sequence similarities" (3,202).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Carbohydrate-Active EnZymes database (CAZy): an expert resource for Glycogenomics Brandi L. Cantarel, P. M. Coutinho, Corinne Rancurel et al. · Nucleic Acids Research Open access 6 Oct 2008 6,110
2 Glycosylation in cancer: mechanisms and clinical implications Salomé S. Pinho, Celso Albuquerque Reis · Nature reviews. Cancer ReviewOpen access 20 Aug 2015 3,210
3 A classification of glycosyl hydrolases based on amino acid sequence similarities Bernard Henrissat · Biochemical Journal Open access Dec 1991 3,202
4 Glycosylation in Cellular Mechanisms of Health and Disease Kazuaki Ohtsubo, Jamey D. Marth · Cell Open access Sep 2006 2,844
5 Glycobiology: Toward Understanding the Function of Sugars Raymond Allen Dwek · Chemical Reviews Review 1996 2,806
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis research done?

The largest centres of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Tokyo (Japan) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Wuxi.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 155 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 89 works
  3. 3 TokyoJapan 74 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 58 works
  5. 5 ParisFrance 54 works
  6. 6 MoscowRussia 49 works
  7. 7 WuxiChina 45 works
  8. 8 GuangzhouChina 38 works
  9. 9 WuhanChina 37 works
  10. 10 HangzhouChina 36 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. WuxiCN · 44.6 works12×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis than the world average.

See Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis on the map

Where is the best place to study Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis?

Among universities, judged by research, Jiangnan University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Sichuan University score highest, combining citation 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 20.26%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Sichuan UniversityUniversity of GeorgiaUniversity of Chines…Jiangnan 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.

Citation 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
1Jiangnan UniversityChina 70.715.7%18.3×36 +104.3%
2University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 61.316.1%4.6×25 +47.8%
3Sichuan UniversityChina 59.923.7%2.8×21 +50.3%
4University of GeorgiaUnited States 55.922.3%12.1×18 -28.4%
5Harvard UniversityUnited States 55.130.7%1.2×13 -34.1%
6Leiden UniversityNetherlands 50.821.6%7.0×13 -35.4%
7Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 50.518.7%1.9×18 +62.7%
8Banaras Hindu UniversityIndia 48.79.0%7.9×20 +287.1%
9Freie Universität BerlinGermany 48.218.2%8.6×12 +8.3%
10Peking UniversityChina 45.126.6%2.2×15 -26.0%

Universities only. The score blends citation 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 Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis, country by country

Is Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 10% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2000.

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 Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.016% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis0.016% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis 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%Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis10.0% 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.

Discussion

Ask a question or share a note about Carbohydrate Chemistry and Synthesis. Keep it to the research: no personal attacks, advertising or links. Any reader can report a post, which collapses it for everyone until it is opened.