A study by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) shows that papers published by scientists at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research between January 1981 and June 1992 had the most impact when compared to those from 34 other top-rated independent research labs, biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms, and university departments in the biological sciences.
ISI reports that Whitehead researchers published 1,035 papers during the period, which were cited 52,820 times for an average citations-per-paper score (citation impact) of 51.03. MIT's Department of Biology ranked second with a citation impact of 46.76.
The Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Embryology ranked third with an average of 46.37 citations per paper. Genentech, which funded the study, was the top-ranking biotech company with a citation impact of 39.6. The leading pharmaceutical firm was Johnson & Johnson, with an average of 20.97 citations per paper.
The ISI study is described in the December 1992 issue of the journal Biotechnology.
A version of this article appeared in the March 17, 1993 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 37, Number 26).
