| Top institutions in immunology |
| Data provided by Thomson Reuters from its Essential Science Indicators database, 1 January 2000-31 December 2010 |
| | Institution | Papers | Citations | Citations per paper |
| 1 | Osaka University | 1,046 | 60,911 | 58.23 |
| 2 | Yale University | 1,244 | 57,616 | 46.32 |
| 3 | Kyoto University | 618 | 28,521 | 46.15 |
| 4 | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | 814 | 36,481 | 44.82 |
| 5 | La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology | 508 | 22,335 | 43.97 |
| 6 | Scripps Research Institute | 830 | 36,325 | 43.77 |
| 7 | Washington University in St Louis | 1,078 | 44,964 | 41.71 |
| 8 | Stanford University | 1,099 | 44,107 | 40.13 |
| 9 | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | 2,159 | 84,999 | 39.37 |
| 10 | University of Chicago | 550 | 21,201 | 38.55 |
| 11 | Harvard University | 4,088 | 155,610 | 38.07 |
| 12 | University of Oxford | 1,538 | 56,307 | 36.61 |
| 13 | University of Washington | 1,692 | 60,731 | 35.89 |
| 14 | New York University | 715 | 25,617 | 35.83 |
| 15 | Massachusetts General Hospital | 601 | 21,445 | 35.68 |
| 16 | University of California, San Francisco | 1,765 | 62,389 | 35.35 |
| 17 | National Cancer Institute | 1,568 | 54,191 | 34.56 |
| 18 | University of California, San Diego | 899 | 30,701 | 34.15 |
| 19 | University of Massachusetts | 706 | 23,538 | 33.34 |
| 20 | University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston | 538 | 17,374 | 32.29 |
| 21 | Emory University | 1,058 | 32,914 | 31.11 |
| 22 | Boston University | 558 | 17,032 | 30.52 |
| 23 | University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas | 634 | 19,281 | 30.41 |
| 24 | University of Iowa | 650 | 19,706 | 30.32 |
| 25 | Duke University | 884 | 26,706 | 30.21 |
| 26 | University of California, Los Angeles | 1,373 | 40,538 | 29.53 |
| Northwestern University | 583 | 16,863 | 28.92 |
| 28 | University of Tokyo | 1,123 | 32,412 | 28.86 |
| 29 | University of Pennsylvania | 1,598 | 45,967 | 28.77 |
| 30 | University of Minnesota | 874 | 24,951 | 28.55 |
The data above were extracted from the Essential Science Indicators database of Thomson Reuters. This database, currently covering the period January 2000 through December 2010, surveys only journal articles (restricted to research reports and review articles) indexed by Thomson Reuters. Articles are assigned to a field based on the journals in which they were published and the Thomson Reuters journal-to-field classification scheme. Papers in multidisciplinary journals such as Nature and Science are assigned to specific fields on an article-by-article basis. Both articles tabulated and citation counts to those articles are for the period indicated. Naturally, institutions publishing many papers have a greater likelihood of collecting more citations than those publishing fewer papers. This ranking is by citations per paper (citation impact) for institutions that published 500 or more papers in the field of immunology during the period. For papers with multiple institutional addresses, each institution receives full, not fractional, publication and citation credit.
Essential Science Indicators lists institutions ranked in the top 1 per cent for a field over a given period, based on total citations. For the current version, 318 institutions are listed in the field of immunology, meaning that a total of approximately 31,800 institutions were surveyed to obtain these results. Of the 318, 88 institutions published 500 or more papers. The ranking by citation impact seeks to reveal heavy hitters based on per-paper influence, not mere output or total citations. The average world impact in immunology for the period was 21.81. Thus, all the institutions listed above performed well above that benchmark.
The US dominates the ranking, with 26 of the 30 institutions listed based in the country. The UK is represented by the University of Oxford (12th).
Japanese institutions appear three times: Osaka University (first); Kyoto University (third); and the University of Tokyo (28th). Japan’s high ranking can be attributed to the research groups led by Shizuo Akira at Osaka and Shimon Sakaguchi at Kyoto. Of the 61 highly cited papers in immunology from Osaka over the period measured, 56 are by Professor Akira, and of the highly cited papers in the field from Kyoto in the same period, 10 are by Professor Sakaguchi. Highly cited papers are defined as those that rank in the top 1 per cent by citations for their field and year of publication. Professor Akira’s area of specialisation is innate immunity; Professor Sakaguchi’s focus is regulatory T-cells.
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