Top-cited articles in environmental sciences: merits and demerits of citation analysis.

The purpose of this study was to identify the top-cited articles published in environmental science journals listed in Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The Web of Science database was used to retrieve the top-cited articles having 500 or more total citations from their publication to 2010. The articles were analyzed with regard to institution and country of origin with five indicators including total number of top-cited articles, as well as independent, collaborative, first author, and corresponding author articles. Article life was also investigated for history of impact of articles. Results showed that 88 articles were cited more than 500 times. These articles appeared in 26 different journals, with 28% of all top-cited articles in Environmental Science & Technology, followed by Water Resources Research. The top-cited articles published since 1971 to 2002 were from 17 countries. The USA published the most of the articles and was ranked on top among the five indicators. The U.S. Geological Survey was the most productive institution while, the Brunel University, UK published the most inter-institutionally collaborative and corresponding author articles under environmental science category.