Molecular Biology and Evolution

Top Research Topics at Molecular Biology and Evolution?

Genetics, Gene, Evolutionary biology, Genome and Phylogenetics are the subjects of interest in Molecular Biology and Evolution. Topics like Molecular evolution, Gene duplication, Nonsynonymous substitution, Mitochondrial DNA and Locus (genetics) are tackled as part of the discussions on Genetics. It investigates Nonsynonymous substitution research which frequently intersects with Synonymous substitution.

Gene family, Intron, Negative selection, Phenotype and Drosophila melanogaster are all areas of Gene tackled in Molecular Biology and Evolution. The journal is mostly focused on Drosophila melanogaster, specifically Melanogaster. The studies in Evolutionary biology featured incorporate elements of Adaptation, Ecology, Clade, Lineage (evolution) and Genetic variation.

Molecular Biology and Evolution focused on Genome research but expanded to cover Computational biology. Issues in Phylogenetics were discussed, taking into consideration concepts from other disciplines like Zoology and Phylogenetic tree. The majority of Phylogenetic tree studies in the journal are focused on the subject of Monophyly.

• Genetics (57.89%)
• Gene (35.83%)
• Evolutionary biology (30.39%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

• The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. (50307 citations)
• MEGA5: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis using Maximum Likelihood, Evolutionary Distance, and Maximum Parsimony Methods (34710 citations)
• MEGA6: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Version 6.0 (31760 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Molecular Biology and Evolution:

The most cited articles generally zeroe in on subjects such as Genetics, Phylogenetic tree, Evolutionary biology, Phylogenetics and Gene. Issues in Phylogenetic tree were discussed in the most cited publications, taking into consideration concepts from other disciplines like Nuclear gene and Botany. While the most cited papers focused on Phylogenetics, they were also able to explore topics like Zoology and Sequence alignment.

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

• Gene
• Ecology
• Genome

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The objective of the journal is to combine knowledge in the areas of Evolutionary biology, Gene, Genome, Genetics and Adaptation. Some problems in Evolutionary biology that were presented in Molecular Biology and Evolution overlapped with concepts under Phylogenetics, Clade, Phylogenetic tree, Selection (genetic algorithm) and Genetic variation. The in-depth study on Phylogenetic tree also explores topics in the intersecting field of Context (language use).

Computational biology and Function (biology) are some topics wherein Gene research discussed in Molecular Biology and Evolution have an impact. Topics in Genome explored in the journal were investigated in conjunction with research in Chromosome and Lineage (evolution). The journal is focused mainly on Genetics, particularly Transcriptome.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

• Phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 data is difficult. (43 citations)
• A Phylodynamic Workflow to Rapidly Gain Insights into the Dispersal History and Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Lineages. (35 citations)
• Evidence for strong mutation bias towards, and selection against, U content in SARS-CoV-2: implications for vaccine design. (33 citations)

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 Molecular Biology and Evolution (based on the number of publications) are:

• Joseph Caspermeyer (163 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 9 less than at the previous edition,
• Wen-Hsiung Li (81 papers) published 2 papers at the last edition,
• Sudhir Kumar (72 papers) published 3 papers at the last edition, 6 less than at the previous edition,
• Masatoshi Nei (66 papers) absent at the last edition,
• Jianzhi Zhang (66 papers) published 5 papers at the last edition, 1 more 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 Molecular Biology and Evolution (based on the number of publications) are:

• Max Planck Society (231 papers) published 22 papers at the last edition, 5 more than at the previous edition,
• Pennsylvania State University (187 papers) published 5 papers at the last edition, 4 less than at the previous edition,
• Harvard University (179 papers) published 16 papers at the last edition, 10 more than at the previous edition,
• Centre national de la recherche scientifique (170 papers) published 3 papers at the last edition, 1 less than at the previous edition,
• Chinese Academy of Sciences (146 papers) published 27 papers at the last edition, 13 more 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, 4.02% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 24.88% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 13.02% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 18.60% of all publications and 43.49% 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.