Top countries in biology and biochemistry

	Scientist	Papers	Citations	Citations per paper
1	Switzerland	10,736	249,512	23.24
2	United States	205,965	4,691,498	22.78
3	Scotland	7,697	164,132	21.32
4	England	41,188	852,701	20.70
5	The Netherlands	12,483	234,013	18.75
6	Germany	45,334	848,633	18.72
7	Denmark	8,078	145,444	18.00
8	Sweden	13,811	247,763	17.94
9	Canada	26,849	477,864	17.80
10	Israel	6,806	120,683	17.73
11	Finland	5,126	87,924	17.15
12	Belgium	7,588	128,026	16.87
13	Australia	15,303	252,831	16.52
14	France	35,543	568,805	16.00
15	Austria	5,282	80,506	15.24
16	Japan	62,890	864,463	13.75
17	Italy	24,093	307,856	12.78
18	Spain	16,040	200,504	12.50
19	South Korea	13,003	115,833	8.91
20	Poland	8,656	63,541	7.34

The data above were extracted from the Essential Science Indicators database of Thomson Reuters. This database, currently covering the period January 1998 through October 2008, surveys only journal articles (original research reports and review articles) indexed by Thomson Reuters. Articles are assigned to a category based on the journals in which they were published and Thomson Reuters’ journal-to-category field-definition scheme. Both articles tabulated and citation counts to those articles are for the period indicated. Here our ranking in biology and biochemistry is by citations per paper – among nations that earned 50,000 or more citations during the period – to reveal weighted impact. For articles with multiple authors from different nations, each nation receives full, not fractional, citation credit. Essential Science Indicators lists nations ranked in the top 50 per cent for a field over a given period, based on total citations. In biology and biochemistry, 98 nations are listed, meaning 196 were surveyed. Twenty-four nations collected at least 50,000 citations in this field during the period. For more information on Thomson Reuters’ Essential Science Indicators, see http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/products/esi.