Most Frequent Authors of Multiple Sclerosis Publications

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Who has published the most scientific publications about multiple sclerosis (MS)? Who is the most productive researcher? Where do these multiple sclerosis researchers come from? How many publications exist about multiple sclerosis?

As an MS patient, I am interested in advances in MS research. I am interested in knowing who contributes to multiple sclerosis research. In order to answer these questions, I have queried the the scientific database Web of Science from Thomson Reuters. The results of my research are shown in the following table.

Results

Nr.AuthorCountry# MS Pu­bli­cations% of 51’645 Pu­bli­cations
1. FILIPPI M* IT 606 1.18%
2. COMI G IT 453 0.88%
3. MILLER DH UK 450 0.87%
4. POLMAN CH NL 335 0.65%
5. THOMPSON AJ AU 334 0.65%
6. BARKHOF F NL 333 0.65%
7. HARTUNG HP* DE 327 0.63%
8. ANONYMOUS   257 0.5%
9. EBERS GC UK 248 0.48%
10. LASSMANN H AT 245 0.48%
11. RODRIGUEZ M SP 237 0.46%
12. KAPPOS L CH 231 0.45%
13. LINK H SE 231 0.45%
14. MONTALBAN X SP 230 0.45%
15. WEINER HL US 228 0.44%
16. OLSSON T SE 208 0.4%
17. GOLD R DE 200 0.39%
18. ROVARIS M IT 197 0.38%
19. MCFARLAND HF US 195 0.38%
20. HAFLER DA US 191 0.37%
21. MARTIN R US 190 0.37%
22. STEINMAN L US 186 0.36%
23. ROCCA MA IT 185 0.36%
24. POZZILLI C IT 180 0.35%
25. HAUSER SL US 176 0.34%
26. RAINE CS US 165 0.32%
27. HOHLFELD R DE 163 0.32%
28. RANSOHOFF RM US 163 0.32%
29. COMPSTON A* UK 161 0.31%
30. RUDICK RA US 161 0.31%
31. ANTEL JP CA 159 0.31%
32. HILLERT J SE 156 0.3%
33. GIOVANNONI G UK 155 0.3%
34. MCDONALD WI UK 154 0.3%
35. BRÜCK W DE 150 0.29%
36. OKSENBERG JR US 150 0.29%
37. MARTINELLI V IT 144 0.28%
38. SADOVNICK AD CA 142 0.28%
39. RIECKMANN P DE 141 0.27%
40. SORENSEN PS DK 139 0.27%
41. WEINSTOCK GUTTMAN B US 138 0.27%
42. PATY DW CA 136 0.26%
43. OFFNER H US 135 0.26%
44. UITDEHAAG BMJ NL 135 0.26%
45. WEINSHENKER BG US 130 0.25%
46. DE SEZE J FR 129 0.25%
47. HEMMER B DE 129 0.25%
48. GHEZZI A IT 128 0.25%
49. BARKER GJ UK 127 0.25%
50. GROSSMAN RI US 126 0.24%
51. FAZEKAS F AT 125 0.24%
52. KIESEIER BC DE 125 0.24%
53. MILLER SD US 125 0.24%
54. ZIVADINOV R US 125 0.24%
55. CONFAVREUX C FR 124 0.24%
56. TOYKA KV DE 118 0.23%
57. VERMERSCH P FR 118 0.23%
58. WIENDL H DE 117 0.23%
59. TROJANO M IT 115 0.22%
60. KURTZKE JF US 113 0.22%
61. ZIPP F DE 111 0.22%
62. CALABRESI PA US 110 0.21%
63. FREDRIKSON S SE 110 0.21%
64. COMPSTON DAS* UK 109 0.21%
65. WOLINSKY JS US 109 0.21%
66. IEEE   107 0.21%
67. SORMANI MP IT 107 0.21%
68. CAPUTO D IT 106 0.21%
69. STÜVE O DE 106 0.21%
70. POSER CM US 104 0.2%
71. VANDENBARK AA US 104 0.2%
72. ARNOLD DL UK 103 0.2%
73. CROSS AH US 103 0.2%
74. RACKE MK US 103 0.2%
75. ACHIRON A IL 102 0.2%
76. DE STEFANO N IT 101 0.2%
77. AMATO MP IT 100 0.19%
78. DE KEYSER J BE 99 0.19%
79. FILIPPI MASSIMO* IT 99 0.19%
80. MILLER A US 99 0.19%
81. TOURTELLOTTE WW US 97 0.19%
82. FROHMAN EM US 96 0.19%
83. TINTORE M ES 96 0.19%
84. BAKSHI R US 95 0.18%
85. FREEDMAN MS CA 95 0.18%
86. WEKERLE H DE 95 0.18%
87. MYHR KM NO 94 0.18%
88. RAMAGOPALAN SV UK 94 0.18%
89. SAWCER S UK 94 0.18%
90. GOODKIN DE CA 93 0.18%
91. THOMPSON EJ US 92 0.18%
92. HARTUNG HANS PETER* DE 90 0.17%
93. BAR OR A CA 89 0.17%
94. CLANET M BE 89 0.17%
95. DIJKSTRA CD NL 89 0.17%
96. MARTINO G IT 89 0.17%
97. BERGER T AT 88 0.17%
98. MATTHEWS PM UK 88 0.17%
99. GASPERINI C IT 87 0.17%
100. KIRA J JP 87 0.17%

The 100 most frequent authors of multiple sclerosis (MS) publications. # denotes the number of publications. Authors marked with * were twice in the results. Data source: Thomson Reuters Web of Science, Date: 02.09.2011

I have summed up above results per country. The following table shows the results.

Nr.Country# Authors# MS Publications
  All countries 95 15403
1. US 28 3809
2. IT* 14 2697
3. DE* 12 1872
4. UK* 10 1783
5. CA 6 714
6. NL 4 892
7. SE 4 705
8. AT 3 458
9. FR 3 371
10. SP 2 467
11. BE 2 188
12. AU 1 334
13. CH 1 231
14. DK 1 139
15. IL 1 102
16. ES 1 96
17. NO 1 94
18. JP 1 87

Combination of the countries for the 100 most frequent authors of multiple sclerosis publications. # denotes “number of”. The table is ordered by the number of authors per country. Countries marked with * have an authors who was twice in the results. Thus, the number of publications may vary there +/- 100 publications. Data source: Thomson Reuters Web of Science, Date: 02.09.2011

Method

I have used this Web of Science query:

  • Topic=(multiple AND sclerosis)
  • Refined by: Document Type=( ARTICLE OR EDITORIAL MATERIAL OR REVIEW OR PROCEEDINGS PAPER OR LETTER )
  • No date restriction.

This analysis is based on the name of the authors. Sometimes the authors publish with different names, e.g. with or without a middle name. I have not adjusted the number of publications as I do not know if these publications were already counted for both names. A detailed analysis and adjustement was not possible due to lack of information.

Discussion

In September 2011, there existed a total of 51’645 publication about multiple sclerosis, i.e. having the keyword multiple sclerosis.

A scientific publication has normally several authors. The publication will be assigned to each of these researchers.

The term author is sometimes misleading. Authors are to understand in the sense of contributor or investigator. A person having not written a single line of the publication can be the principal and corresponding author.

The numbers in the above tables show quantities. There may or may not be a correlation with quality. However these numbers allow easily to compare researchers in an objective way. These numbers refer only to multiple sclerosis. These researchers have published probably in other domains of medicine. These publications are not counted here.

I have extended my analysis by summing up the results of the authors to the country where they work. The numbers of the country are only based on the 100 most frequent authors. These numbers do not show the total contribution to multiple sclerosis research. A country with many authors that publish occasionally may not show up here. Countries with very prolific researchers have an advantage. This effect can already be seen for the US researchers. The USA do not have a “top ten” researcher, but overall the US contribution is the biggest.

Remarkably, the “top ten” authors are all, with one exception, coming from Europe. This fact may explain the importance of the ECTRIMS (European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis). Currently, there are also more European pharmaceutical companies that sell and research MS medicaments: Bayer, Merck Serono, Sanofi-aventis, and Novartis.

It remains to not that such quantitative analysis are based on object criteria, but the results must be carefully interpreted and may be limited in evidence.

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