HSPH tops peers in faculty research papers, citations, media coverage

January 25, 2012 — Faculty at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) publish more research—and their work is cited more frequently—than faculty at any other school of public health, according to recent statistics compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Productive Faculty

According to the data developed for HSPH, researchers affiliated with the School co-authored 8,153 papers between 2005 and 2010, and those papers were cited by other researchers 126,590 times—15.53 citations per paper.

Next-highest, in terms of numbers of research papers and citations, was Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose researchers co-authored 7,127 papers that were cited 90,469 times—12.69 citations per paper.

See Thomson Reuters analysis

Notably, HSPH researchers contributed to more papers even though the size of the research community at Johns Hopkins is roughly two-and-a-half times larger than that at HSPH, according to [[David Hunter]], dean for academic affairs.

HSPH is “clearly ahead of our peers in terms of the impact…that our research is having,” Hunter said at the annual State of the School address on December 12, 2011.

Substantial Media Coverage

HSPH research also receives substantial media attention. The School accounted for 47.4% of all press mentions for any school of public health in the 90-day period ending Nov. 21, 2011, according to the media tracking company Cision.

In the press arena, there were 7,888 mentions about HSPH in the media in outlets such as The New York TimesCNNBloomberg News, and others in the 90-day period leading up to Nov. 21, according to Cision. During the same period, Johns Hopkins received about a third as many, 2,268; Columbia University’s Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, 1,273; Boston University School of Public Health, 918; University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, 416; and University of Michigan School of Public Health, 262.

HSPH’s 90-day total “comes to an average of more than 85 mentions every day,” Hunter said. “Looking at media coverage, HSPH continues to be one of the most trusted sources reporters turn to for information on issues ranging from scientific breakthroughs to insights on nutrition, health care policy, AIDS, and many more subjects.”

See “HSPH In the Media” for a selection of media coverage

HSPH’s website traffic is also heavy, with visits up more than 32% over last year. There were more than 4.8 million unique visitors to the School’s main site in 2011, up from 3.7 million the year before. The HSPH website receives roughly three times more traffic than the site of its closest competitor, Johns Hopkins.

–Karen Feldscher