Geophysical Research Letters

Top Research Topics at Geophysical Research Letters?

Geophysical Research Letters primarily focuses on research topics in Climatology, Atmospheric sciences, Geophysics, Seismology and Oceanography. Topics in Climatology were tackled in line with various other fields like Climate change, Climate model and Precipitation. It explores topics in Atmospheric sciences which can be helpful for research in disciplines like Atmosphere, Meteorology and Aerosol.

The journal holds forums on Geophysics that merges themes from other disciplines such as Magnetosphere, Magnetic field, Solar wind and Computational physics. Geophysical Research Letters focuses on Seismology research which is adjacent to topics in Slip (materials science). The works on Oceanography deal in particular with Sea ice.

Stratosphere and Ozone are closely related fields of research discussed in Geophysical Research Letters.

• Climatology (21.24%)
• Atmospheric sciences (17.38%)
• Geophysics (13.27%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

• The Arctic oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fields (3110 citations)
• Effect of recent revisions to the geomagnetic reversal time scale on estimates of current plate motions (2877 citations)
• The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and its relation to rainfall and river flows in the continental U.S. (2025 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Geophysical Research Letters:

Climatology, Atmospheric sciences, Oceanography, Geophysics and Seismology are the main subjects of interest in the journal articles. While Climatology is the focus of the most cited publications, it also provides insights into the studies of Global warming, Climate change, Climate model and Precipitation. Aside from discussions in Atmospheric sciences, the journal papers also deal with the subject of Meteorology which intersects with Satellite disciplines.

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

Top authors and change over time

The top authors publishing in Geophysical Research Letters (based on the number of publications) are:

• Christopher T. Russell (366 papers) published 9 papers at the last edition, 1 less than at the previous edition,
• William S. Kurth (195 papers) published 2 papers at the last edition, 7 less than at the previous edition,
• James L. Burch (169 papers) published 11 papers at the last edition, 2 less than at the previous edition,
• Robert E. Ergun (154 papers) published 6 papers at the last edition, 1 less than at the previous edition,
• Vassilis Angelopoulos (138 papers) published 4 papers at the last edition, 3 less than at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Top affiliations and change over time

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in Geophysical Research Letters (based on the number of publications) are:

• Goddard Space Flight Center (2157 papers) published 79 papers at the last edition, 10 less than at the previous edition,
• California Institute of Technology (1763 papers) published 67 papers at the last edition, 22 less than at the previous edition,
• University of Colorado Boulder (1361 papers) published 57 papers at the last edition, 10 less than at the previous edition,
• University of California, Los Angeles (1333 papers) published 65 papers at the last edition, 12 less than at the previous edition,
• University of California, Berkeley (1125 papers) published 39 papers at the last edition, 6 less than at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 3.16% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 32.14% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 10.76% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 13.57% of all publications and 43.53% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

• Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
• Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
• Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
• Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
• Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.