The parasitic disease malaria is the
leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly among
the poorer nations and in tropical and subtropical climates. According
to World Health Organization estimates, there are 300-500 million
cases of malaria each year and more than one million of these cases
result in death. Eradication campaigns have not been successful, due
to the development of resistance to pesticides on the part of the
carrier mosquito and the development of drug resistance on the part of
the parasite.
The most-cited papers on the Special
Topics list of the top 20 papers on malaria published in the past 10
years deal with the genome sequence of the Plasmodium falciparum
malaria parasite and the Anopheles gambiae mosquito. The genome
sequence of both organisms can be used as a basis for the development
of new drugs and vaccines to combat malaria. Other topics covered in
the 10-year paper list include: morbidity, mortality, and disability
due to malaria; symptoms indicative of life-threatening malaria in
children; naturally acquired immunity factors; molecular-level studies
towards the development of a malaria vaccine; and the use of
insecticide-impregnated bed nets for the prevention of malaria.
These same topics are prevalent in
the list of the top 20 papers on malaria published in the past two
years as well, with an increase in the number of papers discussing the
use of insecticide-treated bed nets. Other topics on the two-year list
include gene expression profiling of the parasite life cycle, the
vectoral capacity of A. gambiae, insect immunity, transmission
rates, the re-emergence of chloroquine sensitivity in Malawi, the
genetic basis for pregnancy-associated malaria, and studies examining
the efficacy of pharmacological treatments such as artesunate
combinations and fosmidomycin.
Methodology
To construct this database,
papers were extracted based on title-supplied keywords for malaria. The keywords used were as follows:
malaria*
The baseline time span for this database
is 1995-2005 (third bimonthly). The resulting database contained 6,105 (10 years)
and 1,819 (2 years) papers; 14,646 authors; 134 countries; 855 journals; and
3,473 institutions.
Rankings
Once the database was in place,
it was used to generate the lists of top 20 papers (two- and ten-year
periods), authors, journals,
institutions, and nations, covering a time span of 1995-2005 (third
bimonthly).
The top 20 papers are ranked
according to total cites. Rankings for author, journal, institution,
and country are listed in three ways: according to total cites, total
papers, and total cites/paper. The paper thresholds and corresponding
percentages used to determine
scientist, institution, country, and journal rankings according to
total cites/paper, and total papers respectively are as follows:
| Entity: |
Scientists |
Institutions |
Countries |
Journals |
| Thresholds: |
18 |
52 |
14 |
14 |
| Percentage: |
1% |
1% |
50% |
10% |
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