News › Rothamsted Research ranked in top ten UK institutions for environment and ecology research

The classical broadbalk experiment

27 July 2010

A survey published by Times Higher Education ranks Rothamsted Research, an institute of the BBSRC, in the top ten of UK institutions which have produced the most influential papers of the last ten years in category of environmental and ecological sciences. A total of 52,900 institutions were included in this survey designed to reveal papers that had the most impact in this category, which included biodiversity, climate change as it affects the environment, soil and plant sciences.

The survey analysed the average number of times research papers were cited by other scientists, revealing an impact factor for British institutions that published 300 or more papers in the fields of environmental sciences and ecology, during the period from January 2000 to February 2010.

Rothamsted Research published 353 journal articles (in publications indexed by Thomson Reuters) in the environmental and ecology category and these papers were cited in other research papers on more than 6000 occasions; achieving an average of 18.09 citations per paper. Times Higher Education stated that by ranking citation impact the survey reveals the 'heavy hitters' based on per paper influence, not mere output.

"We are delighted with our ranking in the Times Higher Education survey" said Professor Maurice Moloney, director and CEO of Rothamsted Research. "We are proud of the high-impact work performed by ecologists and environmental scientists at Rothamsted. The corroboration of the quality of our science by independent evaluation, gives us confidence that we are continuing to fulfil our unique mandate at Rothamsted: enhancing crop productivity whilst protecting and enhancing the agricultural environment."

"This is a great result for the institute and particularly our research Centre" said Professor Keith Goulding, Acting Director of Rothamsted’s Centre for Soil and Ecosystem function "It shows that Rothamsted’s innovative research in environment and ecology, started over 160 years ago, continues to influence our peers, to have international impact and to show that research funding to the institute is money well spent."

This is another great result for the BBSRC institutes, manifested by this success and that of the John Innes Centre which, in association with the Sainsbury Lab, topped a survey ranking the most influential papers of the last ten years in plant and animal sciences.

Notes to Editors

Data for the survey was provided by Thomson Reuters from its Essential Science Indicators, for the period from January 2000 to February 2010.

Rothamsted Research Press Office

For further information, please contact Darren Hughes, Head of Communications, on +44 (0) 1582 763 133 ext 2673, email darren.hughes@rothamsted.ac.uk

Rothamsted is the longest running agricultural research station in the world, providing cutting-edge science and innovation for nearly 170 years. Our mission is to deliver the knowledge and new practices to increase crop productivity and quality and to develop environmentally sustainable solutions for food and energy production. Our strength lies in our integrated, multidisciplinary approach to research in plant and soil science.

Rothamsted Research receives strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) . It is the longest running agricultural research station in the world, developing environmentally sustainable solutions for food and energy production through science and innovation for nearly 170 years.

About BBSRC

BBSRC is the UK funding agency for research in the life sciences and the largest single public funder of agriculture and food-related research.

Sponsored by Government, BBSRC's budget for 2011-12 is around £445M which it is investing in a wide range of research that makes a significant contribution to the quality of life in the UK and beyond and supports a number of important industrial stakeholders, including the agriculture, food, chemical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.

BBSRC provides institute strategic research grants to the following:

The Babraham Institute, Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (Aberystwyth University), Institute of Food Research, John Innes Centre, The Genome Analysis Centre, The Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh) and Rothamsted Research.

The Institutes conduct long-term, mission-oriented research using specialist facilities. They have strong interactions with industry, Government departments and other end-users of their research.

For more information see: www.bbsrc.ac.uk