Howard Ochman

32.2k total citations · 10 hit papers
159 papers, 22.6k citations indexed

About

Howard Ochman is a scholar working on Molecular Biology, Genetics and Ecology. According to data from OpenAlex, Howard Ochman has authored 159 papers receiving a total of 22.6k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 120 papers in Molecular Biology, 74 papers in Genetics and 47 papers in Ecology. Recurrent topics in Howard Ochman's work include Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies (80 papers), Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology (47 papers) and RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms (34 papers). Howard Ochman is often cited by papers focused on Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies (80 papers), Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology (47 papers) and RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms (34 papers). Howard Ochman collaborates with scholars based in United States, France and United Kingdom. Howard Ochman's co-authors include Jeffrey G. Lawrence, Eduardo A. Groisman, Nancy A. Moran, R K Selander, Daniel L. Hartl, Anne S. Gerber, Allan C. Wilson, Chih‐Horng Kuo, Vincent Daubin and Thomas S. Whittam and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science and Cell.

In The Last Decade

Howard Ochman

158 papers receiving 21.9k citations

Hit Papers

Lateral gene transfer and the nature of bacterial inn... 1984 2026 1998 2012 2000 1988 2006 1986 1998 500 1000 1.5k 2.0k 2.5k
What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

  1. Lateral gene transfer and the nature of bacterial innovation
    2000 2.7k citations Howard Ochman, Jeffrey G. Lawrence et al. Nature profile →
  2. Genetic applications of an inverse polymerase chain reaction.
    1988 1.6k citations Howard Ochman et al. profile →
  3. Sex and virulence in Escherichia coli: an evolutionary perspective
    2006 1.6k citations Thierry Wirth, Ruiting Lan et al. profile →
  4. Methods of multilocus enzyme electrophoresis for bacterial population genetics and systematics
    1986 1.1k citations R K Selander, Howard Ochman et al. profile →
  5. Molecular archaeology of the Escherichia coli genome
    1998 702 citations Jeffrey G. Lawrence, Howard Ochman Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences profile →
  6. Standard reference strains of Escherichia coli from natural populations
    1984 652 citations Howard Ochman, R K Selander profile →
  7. Amelioration of Bacterial Genomes: Rates of Change and Exchange
    1997 652 citations Jeffrey G. Lawrence, Howard Ochman profile →
  8. Evolution in bacteria: Evidence for a universal substitution rate in cellular genomes
    1987 604 citations Howard Ochman et al. profile →
  9. Deletional bias and the evolution of bacterial genomes
    2001 589 citations Howard Ochman, Nancy A. Moran et al. profile →
  10. Cospeciation of gut microbiota with hominids
    2016 399 citations Andrew H. Moeller, Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf et al. Science profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name h Career Trend Papers Cites
Howard Ochman United States 68 12.7k 5.8k 5.6k 4.0k 3.6k 159 22.6k
Nicole T. Perna United States 34 11.7k 0.9× 5.2k 0.9× 4.6k 0.8× 3.4k 0.9× 3.8k 1.0× 60 19.9k
Glenn Tesler United States 23 15.8k 1.2× 3.3k 0.6× 7.7k 1.4× 3.3k 0.8× 6.8k 1.9× 36 28.8k
Daniel Falush United Kingdom 45 7.2k 0.6× 11.1k 1.9× 5.2k 0.9× 3.0k 0.8× 4.7k 1.3× 69 25.9k
Eduardo P. C. Rocha France 76 10.8k 0.8× 4.6k 0.8× 6.3k 1.1× 2.6k 0.6× 2.5k 0.7× 223 18.0k
Paul Keim United States 86 9.0k 0.7× 6.8k 1.2× 4.7k 0.8× 2.1k 0.5× 4.7k 1.3× 415 22.7k
Michael McClelland United States 71 8.6k 0.7× 4.6k 0.8× 3.7k 0.6× 3.8k 0.9× 4.1k 1.1× 331 20.1k
Aaron E. Darling Australia 39 15.2k 1.2× 6.4k 1.1× 9.6k 1.7× 1.9k 0.5× 8.0k 2.2× 101 34.1k
Thomas Madden United States 20 16.1k 1.3× 3.8k 0.7× 5.9k 1.1× 1.4k 0.4× 6.5k 1.8× 27 29.5k
Nikolay Vyahhi Russia 6 13.0k 1.0× 2.1k 0.4× 7.0k 1.2× 3.2k 0.8× 5.2k 1.4× 7 24.8k
Max A. Alekseyev United States 14 10.6k 0.8× 1.9k 0.3× 5.7k 1.0× 2.5k 0.6× 4.1k 1.1× 35 19.9k

Countries citing papers authored by Howard Ochman

Since Specialization
Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Howard Ochman's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Howard Ochman with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Howard Ochman more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Howard Ochman

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Howard Ochman. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Howard Ochman. The network helps show where Howard Ochman may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Howard Ochman

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Howard Ochman. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Howard Ochman based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Howard Ochman. Howard Ochman is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

20 of 20 papers shown
1.
Ochman, Howard, et al.. (2025). De novo gene birth and the conundrum of ORFan genes in bacteria. Genome Research. 35(8). 1679–1688. 1 indexed citations
2.
Ochman, Howard, et al.. (2025). Propensity for proto-gene emergence in bacteria. Genome biology. 26(1). 362–362.
3.
D’Alton, Simon, et al.. (2024). Promoter recruitment drives the emergence of proto-genes in a long-term evolution experiment with Escherichia coli. PLoS Biology. 22(5). e3002418–e3002418. 7 indexed citations
4.
Ochman, Howard, et al.. (2023). Gene flow and species boundaries of the genus Salmonella. mSystems. 8(4). e0029223–e0029223. 3 indexed citations
5.
Bobay, Louis‐Marie, et al.. (2020). Recombination events are concentrated in the spike protein region of Betacoronaviruses. PLoS Genetics. 16(12). e1009272–e1009272. 37 indexed citations
6.
Bobay, Louis‐Marie, et al.. (2018). ConSpeciFix: classifying prokaryotic species based on gene flow. Bioinformatics. 34(21). 3738–3740. 17 indexed citations
7.
Bobay, Louis‐Marie & Howard Ochman. (2018). Factors driving effective population size and pan-genome evolution in bacteria. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 18(1). 153–153. 93 indexed citations
8.
Bobay, Louis‐Marie & Howard Ochman. (2018). Biological species in the viral world. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115(23). 6040–6045. 51 indexed citations
9.
Bobay, Louis‐Marie & Howard Ochman. (2017). Biological Species Are Universal across Life’s Domains. Genome Biology and Evolution. 9(3). 491–501. 90 indexed citations
10.
Traverse, Charles C. & Howard Ochman. (2016). Conserved rates and patterns of transcription errors across bacterial growth states and lifestyles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113(12). 3311–3316. 50 indexed citations
11.
Moeller, Andrew H., Yingying Li, Eitel Mpoudi Ngole, et al.. (2014). Rapid changes in the gut microbiome during human evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111(46). 16431–16435. 223 indexed citations
12.
Ochman, Howard, Michael Worobey, Chih‐Horng Kuo, et al.. (2010). Evolutionary Relationships of Wild Hominids Recapitulated by Gut Microbial Communities. PLoS Biology. 8(11). e1000546–e1000546. 373 indexed citations
13.
Liu, Renyi & Howard Ochman. (2007). Stepwise formation of the bacterial flagellar system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104(17). 7116–7121. 186 indexed citations
14.
Ochman, Howard & Liliana M. Dávalos. (2006). The Nature and Dynamics of Bacterial Genomes. Science. 311(5768). 1730–1733. 177 indexed citations
15.
Wirth, Thierry, Ruiting Lan, Frances M. Colles, et al.. (2006). Sex and virulence in Escherichia coli: an evolutionary perspective. HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe). 48 indexed citations
16.
Moran, Nancy A., Patrick H. Degnan, Scott R. Santos, Helen E. Dunbar, & Howard Ochman. (2005). The players in a mutualistic symbiosis: Insects, bacteria, viruses, and virulence genes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102(47). 16919–16926. 241 indexed citations
17.
Ochman, Howard, Jeffrey G. Lawrence, & Eduardo A. Groisman. (2000). Lateral gene transfer and the nature of bacterial innovation. Nature. 405(6784). 299–304. 2734 indexed citations breakdown →
18.
Ochman, Howard, et al.. (1995). Physical structure of human Chromosome 21: an analysis of YACs spanning 21q. Mammalian Genome. 6(2). 84–89. 1 indexed citations
19.
Whittam, Thomas S., Howard Ochman, & R K Selander. (1984). Geographic components of linkage disequilibrium in natural populations of Escherichia coli.. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 1(1). 67–83. 72 indexed citations
20.
Foltz, David W., Howard Ochman, & R K Selander. (1984). Genetic diversity and breeding systems in terrestrial slugs of the families Limacidae and Arionidae. Malacologia. 252(2). 593–605. 35 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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