Signal transduction, the biochemical
manner in which a cell converts signals within seconds in response to
a variety of stimuli, covers a broad spectrum of the biological
sciences, and our analysis of the research over the past decade and
over the past two years is no less broad.
The most-cited signal transduction
paper over the past 10 years is the 1998 Annual Review of
Biochemistry paper, "TGF-beta signal transduction," (Massague
J, 67:753-91), with 1,714 total citations. This review covers the
known aspects of the TGF-beta signal transduction pathways, mutations
in which can result in cancers and developmental disorders. Other
factors playing a role in signal transduction that have been highly
cited over the past decade include lipid rafts, MAP kinases, NF-kappa
B, p38, TNF receptors, and protein tyrosine phosphatases.
The two-year list includes papers
covering signal transduction in plants, bacteria, and mammalian cells.
Important original articles include "A physical and functional
map of the human TNF-alpha NF-kappa B signal transduction
pathway," (Bouwmeester T, et al., Nature Cell Biology
6[2]: 97+, February 2004), which not only helps to spell out the TNF-alpha/NF-kappa
B signal transduction pathway, but may also be applicable for related
pathways in human disease; and "Quantum dot ligands provide new
insights into erbB/HER receptor-mediated signal transduction," (Lidke
DS, et al., Nature Biotechnology 22[2]: 198-203, February
2004), which describes a new method for imaging signal transduction in
living cells. Other aspects of signal transduction covered in reviews
and original articles published in the past two years include
inhibitors of cytokine signal transduction, pathways regulating
cyclooxygenase-2 expression, Nox4 and insulin signal transduction, and
the role of endosomes in signal transduction control.
Methodology
To construct this database,
papers were extracted based on title-supplied keywords for Signal
Transduction. The keywords used were as follows:
signal
transduction*
The baseline time span for this database
is 1996-2006 (third bimonthly). The resulting database contained 4,948 (10 years)
and 920 (2 years) papers; 16,105 authors; 64 countries; 1,092 journals; and
2,284 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 1996-2006 (third bimonthly,
a ten-year plus six month period).
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: |
5 |
38 |
13 |
9 |
| Percentage: |
1% |
1% |
50% |
10% |
Return to previous page