Trajectories of biomedical research leading to Nobel Prize-winning discoveries.
Ann N Y Acad Sci
; 1536(1): 177-187, 2024 Jun.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38837420
ABSTRACT
Significant advancements in public health come from scientific discoveries, but more are needed to meet the ever-growing societal needs. Examining the best practices of outstanding scientists may help develop future researchers and lead to more discoveries. This study compared the comprehensive work of 49 Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine from 2000 to 2019 to a matched control of National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded biomedical investigators. Our unique data set, comprising 11,737 publications, 571 US patents, and 1693 NIH research awards produced by pre-Nobel laureates, was compared to a similar data set of control researchers. Compared to control researchers, pre-Nobel laureates produce significantly more publications annually (median = 5.66; interquartile range [IQR] = 5.16); significantly fewer coauthors per publication (median = 3.32; IQR = 1.95); consistently higher Journal Impact Factor publications (median = 12.04; IQR = 6.83); and substantially more patents per researcher (median = 5; IQR = 14). Such differences arose from nearly identical cumulative NIH award budgets of pre-Nobel laureates (median $25.3 M) and control researchers. Nobel laureates are neither hyper-prolific (>72 papers per year) nor hyper-funded (>$100 M cumulative). An academic age-specific trajectory graph allows aspiring researchers to compare their productivity and collaboration patterns to those of pre-Nobel laureates.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Biomedical Research
/
National Institutes of Health (U.S.)
/
Nobel Prize
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
Ann N Y Acad Sci
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Estados Unidos