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Topic · Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Ethics in Clinical Research

Ethics in Clinical Research is a research topic within Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health. Science Explorer counts 25k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the ethical considerations and challenges in medical research participation, including issues related to informed consent, clinical trials, minority recruitment, genomic research, human subjects protection, biobanking, and vulnerability in research. The papers also discuss strategies for improving recruitment and retention of diverse populations in research studies.

  • Informed Consent
  • Clinical Trials
  • Research Participation
  • Ethical Guidelines
  • Minority Recruitment
  • Genomic Research
  • Human Subjects Protection
  • Biobanking
  • Vulnerability in Research
  • Community Engagement
Research works
25k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+19%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
53% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Ethics in Clinical Research

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

Which countries lead Ethics in Clinical Research research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (2.5k and 594 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 2.5k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 594 works
  3. 3 Canada 333 works
  4. 4 Australia 268 works
  5. 5 Germany 233 works
  6. 6 India 202 works
  7. 7 China 190 works
  8. 8 Netherlands 146 works
  9. 9 France 140 works
  10. 10 Italy 129 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: 52.6%United Kingdom: 12.6%Canada: 7.1%Australia: 5.7%6 others listed: 22.1%53%largest
United States2,479 · 52.6%United Kingdom594 · 12.6%Canada333 · 7.1%Australia268 · 5.7%6 others listed1,041 · 22.1%

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

Which institutions lead Ethics in Clinical Research research?

By volume in 2022-now, Harvard University publishes the most Ethics in Clinical Research research, followed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and National Institutes of Health.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard UniversityUnited States 104 works
  2. 2 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 84 works
  3. 3 National Institutes of HealthUnited States 53 works
  4. 4 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 47 works
  5. 5 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 45 works
  6. 6 University of TorontoCanada 44 works
  7. 7 University of PennsylvaniaUnited States 41 works
  8. 8 Stanford UniversityUnited States 36 works
  9. 9 Mayo ClinicUnited States 34 works
  10. 10 University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 32 works

Who are the leading researchers in Ethics in Clinical Research?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Ethics in Clinical Research include David Moher, Douglas G. Altman and Freddie Bray.

  1. 1 David Moher Canada 898k citations
  2. 2 Douglas G. Altman United Kingdom 862k citations
  3. 3 Freddie Bray France 550k citations
  4. 4 Jennifer Tetzlaff Canada 495k citations
  5. 5 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  6. 6 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  7. 7 Richard M. Durbin United Kingdom 410k citations
  8. 8 Peer Bork Germany 396k citations
  9. 9 Julian P. T. Higgins United Kingdom 390k citations
  10. 10 Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta Pakistan 371k 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 Ethics in Clinical Research?

The most cited paper in Ethics in Clinical Research is "SPIRIT 2013 explanation and elaboration: guidance for protocols of clinical trials" (A.-W. Chan, Jennifer Tetzlaff, Peter Christian Gøtzsche et al., 2013), with 7,135 citations. Next come "The ARRIVE guidelines 2.0: Updated guidelines for reporting animal research" (6,005) and "The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines" (5,935).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 SPIRIT 2013 explanation and elaboration: guidance for protocols of clinical trials A.-W. Chan, Jennifer Tetzlaff, Peter Christian Gøtzsche et al. · BMJ Open access 9 Jan 2013 7,135
2 The ARRIVE guidelines 2.0: Updated guidelines for reporting animal research Nathalie Percie du Sert et al. · PLoS Biology Open access 14 Jul 2020 6,005
3 The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines Anna Jobin, Marcello Ienca, Effy Vayena · Nature Machine Intelligence Open access 2 Sep 2019 5,935
4 Empirical evidence of bias. Dimensions of methodological quality associated with estimates of treatment effects in controlled trials Klaus‐Peter Schulz · JAMA Feb 1995 5,589
5 Does quality of reports of randomised trials affect estimates of intervention efficacy reported in meta-analyses? David Moher, Ba’ Pham, Alison Jones et al. · The Lancet Aug 1998 3,611
All 97 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Ethics in Clinical Research research done?

The largest centres of Ethics in Clinical Research research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), New York (United States), Boston (United States) and Chapel Hill (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Bethesda, Chapel Hill and San Francisco.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 172 works
  2. 2 New YorkUnited States 135 works
  3. 3 BostonUnited States 105 works
  4. 4 Chapel HillUnited States 80 works
  5. 5 MelbourneAustralia 78 works
  6. 6 PhiladelphiaUnited States 74 works
  7. 7 Washington D.C.United States 69 works
  8. 8 TorontoCanada 67 works
  9. 9 ParisFrance 61 works
  10. 10 BaltimoreUnited States 61 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. BethesdaUS · 56.8 works7.7×
  2. Chapel HillUS · 80.4 works7.2×
  3. San FranciscoUS · 52.0 works6.5×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Ethics in Clinical Research on the map

Where is the best place to study Ethics in Clinical Research?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, University of Oxford and University of Ottawa 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%10%20%mean 13.59%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of OttawaStanford UniversityHarvard UniversityUniversity of Oxford
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 85.914.1%6.0×104 +41.2%
2University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 67.613.3%5.9×45 -13.5%
3University of OttawaCanada 67.616.5%7.5×27 +0.4%
4Stanford UniversityUnited States 67.314.2%4.5×36 +13.2%
5Utrecht UniversityNetherlands 64.920.6%4.1×16 +1.8%
6Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 61.510.9%5.7×47 +9.1%
7University College LondonUnited Kingdom 61.412.6%3.6×31 +5.6%
8University of TorontoCanada 61.010.6%4.0×44 +8.5%
9The University of MelbourneAustralia 60.614.6%5.2×31 +2.3%
10University of PennsylvaniaUnited States 59.08.5%7.2×41 +21.6%

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 Ethics in Clinical Research, country by country

Is Ethics in Clinical Research research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 19% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Ethics in Clinical Research.

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 Ethics in Clinical Research as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.026% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Ethics in Clinical Research0.026% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Ethics in Clinical Research 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%Ethics in Clinical Research9.9% 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.

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