| Top nations in agricultural sciences |
| Data provided by Thomson Reuters from its Essential Science Indicators, 1 January 2000–31 October 2010 |
| | Country | Papers | Citations | Citations per paper |
| 1 | Scotland | 1,749 | 23,156 | 13.24 |
| 2 | Finland | 1,926 | 23,897 | 12.41 |
| 3 | Sweden | 2,202 | 25,430 | 11.55 |
| %3D4 | Denmark | 2,886 | 33,076 | 11.46 |
| %3D4 | England | 7,835 | 89,772 | 11.46 |
| 6 | The Netherlands | 4,559 | 51,907 | 11.39 |
| 7 | Israel | 1,131 | 12,397 | 10.96 |
| 8 | Norway | 1,622 | 17,169 | 10.59 |
| 9 | Belgium | 3,110 | 32,395 | 10.42 |
| 10 | United States | 43,6 | 416,709 | 9.63 |
| %3D11 | Ireland | 2,3 | 21,757 | 9.57 |
| %3D11 | Switzerland | 2,638 | 25,243 | 9.57 |
| 13 | France | 9,190 | 87,104 | 9.48 |
| 14 | Canada | 8,328 | 75,873 | 9.11 |
| 15 | Greece | 2,380 | 21,316 | 8.96 |
| 16 | Italy | 7,597 | 65,211 | 8.58 |
| 17 | Spain | 13,006 | 109,647 | 8.43 |
| 18 | Portugal | 1,823 | 15,238 | 8.36 |
| 19 | New Zealand | 2,928 | 23,183 | 7.92 |
| 20 | Taiwan | 2,413 | 19,036 | 7.89 |
| 21 | Australia | 7,904 | 61,505 | 7.78 |
| 22 | Austria | 1,200 | 9,291 | 7.74 |
| 23 | Germany | 11,338 | 83,003 | 7.32 |
| 24 | Argentina | 2,671 | 17,571 | 6.58 |
| 25 | South Africa | 1,8 | 7,960 | 6.23 |
The data above, on the top 25 nations in the field of agricultural sciences by citation impact, were extracted from the Essential Science Indicators database of Thomson Reuters. This database, currently covering the period January 2000 to October 2010, surveys only articles (original research reports and review articles) in journals indexed by Thomson Reuters. Articles are assigned to a category based on the journals in which they were published and Thomson Reuters’ journal-to-field definition scheme. Both articles tabulated and citation counts to those articles are for the period indicated.
Here, our ranking in agricultural sciences is by citations per paper – among nations that published 1,000 or more papers – to reveal weighted influence. For articles with multiple authors from different nations, each nation receives full, not fractional, publication and 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 agricultural sciences, 98 nations are listed, meaning 196 were surveyed. Forty-one nations published 1,000 or more papers during the period.
The world average in citation impact for the field was 6.97 during the period, so 23 of the 25 nations listed above surpassed this mark. As with our recent examination of plant and animal sciences, the UK is a leader in research impact: Scotland ranks first and England fifth. Not shown here – because they produced between 500 and 600 agricultural sciences papers in the past decade – are Northern Ireland and Wales, which earned high impact scores of 11.31 and 10.61 respectively. The US, despite its enormous output in the field, is a relative underperformer in impact terms, and is here ranked 10th. Along with the UK and Israel, Europe’s Nordic and
Low Countries dominate the top ranks in citation impact.
For more information, see http://science.thomsonreuters.com/products/esi