| Top journals in gerontology |
| Data provided by Thomson Reuters from its Essential Science Indicators, January 2001-February 2011 |
| | Journal | Papers | Citations | Impact |
| 1 | Ageing Research Reviews | 249 | 5,960 | 23.94 |
| 2 | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society | 2,776 | 49,102 | 17.69 |
| 3 | Psychology and Aging | 729 | 12,188 | 16.72 |
| 4 | Journals of Gerontology Series A – Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences | 1,729 | 28,808 | 16.66 |
| 5 | American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry | 951 | 13,842 | 14.56 |
| 6 | Gerontologist | 866 | 10,617 | 12.26 |
| 7 | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry | 1,605 | 17,146 | 10.68 |
| 8 | Journals of Gerontology Series B – Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences | 856 | 8,094 | 9.46 |
| 9 | Gerontology | 538 | 4,591 | 8.53 |
| 10 | International Psychogeriatrics | 808 | 5,558 | 6.88 |
| 11 | Research on Aging | 265 | 1,626 | 6.14 |
| 12 | Journal of Aging and Health | 423 | 2,561 | 6.05 |
| 13 | Aging & Mental Health | 770 | 4,634 | 6.02 |
| 14 | Journal of Aging and Physical Activity | 312 | 1,797 | 5.76 |
| 15 | Ageing & Society | 484 | 2,714 | 5.61 |
| 16 | Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition | 306 | 1,570 | 5.13 |
| 17 | Journal of Aging Studies | 267 | 1,336 | 5.00 |
| 18 | International Journal of Aging & Human Development | 356 | 1,681 | 4.72 |
| 19 | Journal of Women & Aging | 211 | 663 | 3.14 |
| 20 | Canadian Journal on Aging – La revue canadienne du vieillissement | 371 | 932 | 2.51 |
The table above lists the top 20 journals in geriatrics and gerontology research by citation impact, or citations per paper, for the period from January 2001 to February 2011 inclusive.
Research in geriatrics and gerontology has an increasing relevance as human longevity increases, and particularly so in societies where the elderly are expanding rapidly as a percentage of the population. This multidisciplinary field includes studies ranging from medicine (physical and psychological topics) to the social dimensions of ageing to the economics of healthcare.
From these and other journals in the field, Thomson Reuters identified 412 papers published in the past decade as highly cited (meaning that they rank in the top 1 per cent by citations received for their field and year of publication). Of these, 308 were from the US, 32 from the Netherlands, 28 from Canada, 24 from England,
24 from Italy, 20 from Australia, 18 from Germany, 16 from France, 15 from Sweden and 10 from Switzerland.
Among the institutions that contributed the greatest number of high-impact papers in the field were: the US National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging (NIA), with 40 papers, Johns Hopkins University (36), the University of Pittsburgh (34), the University of California, San Francisco (30), the University of California, Los Angeles (25) and the University of Washington (25). Among non-US institutions, those with the greatest number of highly cited papers were: VU University of Amsterdam (15), the Karolinska Institute (10), the University of New South Wales (10), the University of Sydney (7) and the University of Maastricht (6).
An analysis of the keywords in these 412 highly cited papers reveals major areas of influential research in the field during the past decade: Alzheimer's disease (105 papers), dementia (81), cognition (63), accidental falls (49), hip and other fractures (45), exercise (37), depression (31), oxidative stress (28), quality of life (26), osteoporosis (20), memory (18), delirium (17), mobility (16), obesity (14) and Parkinson's disease (11).
For more information, see http://science.thomsonreuters.com/products/esi/.