Essential Science Indicators is a compilation of statistical information (publication, citation, and cites-per-paper counts) for scientists, institutions, countries, and journals broken out by broad fields of science. It is based on 10 years of Thomson Scientific data. [Note: click to see Essential Science Indicators latest version info.]

Along with its research rankings and other quantitative data, Essential Science Indicators also features a regularly updated selection of original editorial material. incites is a collection of features and commentaries pertaining to the scientists, papers, institutions, journals, and countries listed in the Essential Science Indicators rankings. In interviews, feature stories, profiles for journals, nations and institutions, as well as original commentaries written exclusively for incites, the scientists themselves give behind-the-scenes accounts of their highly cited papers, sometimes called "citation classics," as well as comments on prospects for applications and other future developments in their fields. 

Additionally, feature articles highlight emerging fields, highly cited institutions, high-impact journals, research in various nations, and a range of other topics. New entrants to Essential Science Indicators rankings identify those scientists, institutions, countries, and journals appearing for the first time in a field ranking. incites has produced a listing of most-improved scientists, institutions, countries, and journals from the bimonthly update to Essential Science Indicators. These “most-improved” entities are those that show the largest percentage increase in total citations from one bimonthly update to the next. SCI-BYTES uncovers what's really hot in research. Each week, the Thomson Scientific Research Services Group provides an update to SCI-BYTES based on their Research Performance & Evaluation Tools.

Entries in incites refer back to the rankings within Essential Science Indicators, thereby adding a personal and interpretative dimension to the data. From within the Essential Science Indicators interface, the user will be linked to the appropriate section of incites. incites also includes information about thresholds used to determine the data in Essential Science Indicators. incites is updated monthly.

The ESI Special Topics Web site is designed to complement the Essential Science Indicators in providing citation analyses and commentary for selected scientific research areas that have experienced notable recent advances or are of special current interest. Each topic is prefaced with a description of its relation to the main Essential Science Indicators rankings and the methodology used to assemble the data from the Essential Science Indicators database. The data presented for each topic include citation rankings for scientists, institutions, nations, and journals. A new topic is added monthly.

ESI Special Topics also features interviews, essays and profiles of prominent scientists, institutions, and journals for that topic. In addition, ESI Special Topics also spotlights New Hot Papers, Fast Breaking Papers (both have some comments/mini-interviews), Emerging Research Fronts, and Fast Moving Fronts, all of which deal with current and emerging trends in specialized areas of research. Methodologies for the various listings and commentary on data interpretation are also included.

Essential Science Indicators also includes an archive of issues from Science Watch^® (those more than one year old), the bimonthly newsletter that features citation-based analysis of the latest and hottest in basic research. Typical lead stories in Science Watch present rankings of the most-cited scientists and institutions in selected areas of research, examine hot or emerging fields, and track national and international trends in the conduct of science. Science Watch also features full-length interviews with the world's leading scientists. And each issue includes "Top Ten" lists of Hot Papers in the fields of biology, medicine, physics, and chemistry. These Hot Papers are reports published within the last two years that have received a notably high number of citations during a recent two-month period. Each Top Ten list is accompanied by expert commentary from Science Watch's stable of scientist-journalists.

NOTE: For more information about how to receive current issues of Science Watch, please refer to the Science Watch product page.

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