List Of Most Cited Bioinformatics Softwares And Servers

Question

[Pappu]

I am wondering if there is any list which tells about the most cited bioinformatics softwares and servers in different fields like phylogenetics, alignment, NGS etc.

[Manu Prestat]

I bet for BLAST, CLUSTAL and maybe MUSCLE... :-) I would curious as well.

Answer 1

[Mary]

We've looked into this a bit. But you have think about what you mean by "cited". Although some sites have a specific note on their publications page that says something like: Cite this publication when using [our software]..., many do not. So sometimes you have to sort of pick one. (Some people think you will cite all 5 of their papers that they ask you to--that cracks me up).

And even if a site has a preferred citation not everyone will use it. Many people will put a URL in their paper instead. And some just won't bother at all, they'll just say, "We used the UCSC Genome Browser...".

I'm just saying you have to consider those things if you really mean by a citation count.

EDIT TO ADD: Case in point. So today I'm reading this paper at PLoS One: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0061005 They point out that they used GBrowse to deliver the data. It's referenced as GMODE, with a borked link.