Nature Reviews Microbiology

Top Research Topics at Nature Reviews Microbiology?

Nature Reviews Microbiology facilitates discussions on Microbiology, Virology, Cell biology, Genetics and Computational biology. Microbiology research presented in it encompasses a variety of subjects, including Bacterial pathogenesis, Virulence, Host (biology) and Bacteria. It focused on Virology research but expanded to cover Immunology.

Specifically, studies on Immune system are prevalent in the Immunology works discussed. It concentrates on Genetics topics that focus on Genome and Gene. The studies tackled, which mainly focus on Genome, apply to Evolutionary biology as well.

• Microbiology (23.22%)
• Virology (15.80%)
• Cell biology (11.44%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

• The biofilm matrix (5143 citations)
• Bacterial biofilms: from the natural environment to infectious diseases. (4724 citations)
• Antimicrobial peptides: pore formers or metabolic inhibitors in bacteria? (4136 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Nature Reviews Microbiology:

Microbiology, Bacteria, Ecology, Immunology and Genetics are the main subjects of interest in the published papers. Biofilm, Host (biology) and Virulence are some topics wherein Microbiology research discussed in the most cited publications has an impact. The featured Bacteria studies in the journal papers mainly concentrate on Cell biology but also cover areas of interest in Secretion.

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

• Gene
• Bacteria
• Virus

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The journal explores disciplines such as Microbiology, Microbiome, Virology, Genome and Computational biology. Nature Reviews Microbiology deals with Microbiology in conjunction with Bacteria and similar fields in Antibiotics. Some problems in Microbiome that were presented in it overlapped with concepts under Ecology (disciplines), Host (biology) and Gut flora.

It addresses concerns in Virology which are intertwined with other disciplines, such as Pandemic and Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Topics in Genome explored in the journal were investigated in conjunction with research in Evolutionary biology and Phenotype. While it focused on Computational biology, it was also able to explore topics like RNA and Viral replication.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

• Characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 (683 citations)
• Coronavirus biology and replication: implications for SARS-CoV-2. (507 citations)
• SARS-CoV-2 variants, spike mutations and immune escape. (211 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 Nature Reviews Microbiology (based on the number of publications) are:

• Andrea Du Toit (232 papers) published 13 papers at the last edition, 16 less than at the previous edition,
• Sheilagh Molloy (180 papers) absent at the last edition,
• Ashley York (157 papers) published 22 papers at the last edition, 21 less than at the previous edition,
• Ursula Hofer (155 papers) published 29 papers at the last edition, 12 more than at the previous edition,
• Christina Tobin Kåhrström (122 papers) absent at the last 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 Nature Reviews Microbiology (based on the number of publications) are:

• Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (157 papers) published 8 papers at the last edition, 4 more than at the previous edition,
• University of Oxford (67 papers) published 12 papers at the last edition, 5 more than at the previous edition,
• National Institutes of Health (63 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 3 less than at the previous edition,
• Pasteur Institute (43 papers) absent at the last edition,
• Centre national de la recherche scientifique (40 papers) absent at the last 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, 51.14% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 27.91% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 9.30% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 20.93% of all publications and 41.86% 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.