John Maynard Smith

70.4k total citations · 25 hit papers
227 papers, 47.7k citations indexed

About

John Maynard Smith is a scholar working on Genetics, Sociology and Political Science and Molecular Biology. According to data from OpenAlex, John Maynard Smith has authored 227 papers receiving a total of 47.7k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 77 papers in Genetics, 47 papers in Sociology and Political Science and 38 papers in Molecular Biology. Recurrent topics in John Maynard Smith's work include Evolution and Genetic Dynamics (61 papers), Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (47 papers) and Plant and animal studies (28 papers). John Maynard Smith is often cited by papers focused on Evolution and Genetic Dynamics (61 papers), Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (47 papers) and Plant and animal studies (28 papers). John Maynard Smith collaborates with scholars based in United Kingdom, United States and Canada. John Maynard Smith's co-authors include George Price, John Haigh, Eörs Szathmáry, George A. Parker, Brian G. Spratt, N. H. Smith, Mark Allen O’Rourke, Eörs Szathmáry, D. Harper and Noel H. Smith and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In The Last Decade

John Maynard Smith

220 papers receiving 43.9k citations

Hit Papers

Evolution and the Theory of Games 1956 2026 1979 2002 1988 1982 1973 1974 1997 1000 2.0k 3.0k 4.0k 5.0k
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. Evolution and the Theory of Games
    1988 5.6k citations John Maynard Smith profile →
  2. Evolution and the Theory of Games
    1982 4.7k citations John Maynard Smith profile →
  3. The Logic of Animal Conflict
    1973 4.2k citations John Maynard Smith et al. Nature profile →
  4. The hitch-hiking effect of a favourable gene
    1974 2.2k citations John Maynard Smith, John Haigh Genetics Research profile →
  5. The Major Transitions in Evolution
    1997 1.8k citations John Maynard Smith, Eörs Szathmáry Oxford University Press eBooks profile →
  6. The hitch-hiking effect of a favourable gene
    2007 1.6k citations John Maynard Smith, John Haigh Genetics Research profile →
  7. The theory of games and the evolution of animal conflicts
    1974 1.6k citations John Maynard Smith Journal of Theoretical Biology profile →
  8. How clonal are bacteria?
    1993 1.5k citations John Maynard Smith, N. H. Smith et al. profile →
  9. The logic of asymmetric contests
    1976 1.5k citations John Maynard Smith et al. profile →
  10. Group Selection and Kin Selection
    1964 1.1k citations John Maynard Smith Nature profile →
  11. Developmental Constraints and Evolution: A Perspective from the Mountain Lake Conference on Development and Evolution
    1985 1.0k citations John Maynard Smith et al. profile →
  12. Models in ecology
    1974 913 citations John Maynard Smith profile →
  13. Parental investment: A prospective analysis
    1977 822 citations John Maynard Smith profile →
  14. Optimization Theory in Evolution
    1978 777 citations John Maynard Smith profile →
  15. Optimality theory in evolutionary biology
    1990 655 citations John Maynard Smith et al. Nature profile →
  16. Natural Selection and the Concept of a Protein Space
    1970 652 citations John Maynard Smith Nature profile →
  17. The major evolutionary transitions
    1995 651 citations John Maynard Smith et al. Nature profile →
  18. Animal Signals
    2003 602 citations John Maynard Smith et al. profile →
  19. The Major Transitions of Evolution.
    1995 522 citations John Maynard Smith, Eörs Szathmáry et al. profile →
  20. Why be an hermaphrodite?
    1976 368 citations John Maynard Smith et al. Nature profile →
  21. Mathematical Ideas in Biology
    1968 345 citations John Maynard Smith profile →
  22. The Stability of Predator‐Prey Systems
    1973 322 citations John Maynard Smith et al. profile →
  23. What use is sex?
    1971 304 citations John Maynard Smith Journal of Theoretical Biology profile →
  24. SOME LOCOMOTORY ADAPTATIONS IN MAMMALS.
    1956 289 citations John Maynard Smith et al. profile →
  25. The Effects of Temperature and of Egg-Laying on the Longevity of Drosophila Subobscura
    1958 216 citations John Maynard Smith profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

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

Name h Career Trend Papers Cites
John Maynard Smith United Kingdom 80 18.2k 15.0k 12.8k 6.8k 6.0k 227 47.7k
W D Hamilton United Kingdom 49 14.5k 0.8× 18.0k 1.2× 16.0k 1.2× 3.1k 0.5× 6.7k 1.1× 98 47.9k
Robert M. May United Kingdom 136 22.3k 1.2× 13.1k 0.9× 13.0k 1.0× 4.6k 0.7× 18.7k 3.1× 476 82.1k
Simon A. Levin United States 117 10.5k 0.6× 8.2k 0.5× 8.8k 0.7× 4.7k 0.7× 16.6k 2.8× 602 67.8k
Marcus W. Feldman United States 83 16.8k 0.9× 9.5k 0.6× 4.5k 0.3× 6.5k 1.0× 2.7k 0.5× 558 36.8k
Martin A. Nowak United States 132 24.0k 1.3× 37.2k 2.5× 5.1k 0.4× 9.8k 1.5× 2.4k 0.4× 485 80.9k
Stuart A. West United Kingdom 82 10.4k 0.6× 8.6k 0.6× 9.4k 0.7× 4.0k 0.6× 3.4k 0.6× 294 24.8k
Andrew Gelman United States 74 4.2k 0.2× 7.0k 0.5× 4.1k 0.3× 3.3k 0.5× 9.2k 1.5× 368 76.8k
Douglas M. Bates United States 37 8.0k 0.4× 3.1k 0.2× 16.4k 1.3× 4.5k 0.7× 19.8k 3.3× 87 100.0k
Edward O. Wilson United States 77 18.7k 1.0× 7.0k 0.5× 20.2k 1.6× 1.4k 0.2× 9.2k 1.5× 303 47.2k
Yoh Iwasa Japan 72 6.0k 0.3× 3.8k 0.3× 5.8k 0.4× 2.4k 0.4× 2.9k 0.5× 432 19.1k

Countries citing papers authored by John Maynard Smith

Since Specialization
Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of John Maynard Smith'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 John Maynard Smith with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites John Maynard Smith more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by John Maynard Smith

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by John Maynard Smith. 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 John Maynard Smith. The network helps show where John Maynard Smith may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of John Maynard Smith

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of John Maynard Smith. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of John Maynard Smith 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 John Maynard Smith. John Maynard Smith 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.
Smith, John Maynard & John Haigh. (2007). The hitch-hiking effect of a favourable gene. Genetics Research. 89(5-6). 391–403. 1648 indexed citations breakdown →
2.
Smith, John Maynard, Edward J. Feil, & Noel H. Smith. (2000). Population structure and evolutionary dynamics of pathogenic bacteria. BioEssays. 22(12). 1115–1122. 182 indexed citations
3.
Smith, John Maynard. (1998). The origin of altruism. Nature. 393(6686). 639–640. 46 indexed citations
4.
Smith, John Maynard. (1997). Whole language and its critics: A New Zealand perspective. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. 20(2). 156. 1 indexed citations
5.
Smith, John Maynard. (1996). Natural selection: when learning guides evolution. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc. eBooks. 455–457. 12 indexed citations
6.
Smith, John Maynard, W. G. Runciman, & Robin Dunbar. (1996). Evolution of social behaviour patterns in primates and man. Oxford University Press eBooks. 90 indexed citations
7.
Smith, John Maynard & Eörs Szathmáry. (1996). The Major Transitions in Evolution. Journal of the History of Biology. 29(1). 296 indexed citations
8.
Smith, John Maynard & N. H. Smith. (1996). Synonymous Nucleotide Divergence: What Is “Saturation”?. Genetics. 142(3). 1033–1036. 49 indexed citations
9.
Smith, John Maynard. (1990). The Y of human relationships. Nature. 344(6267). 591–592. 17 indexed citations
10.
Leakey, Richard E., Peter H. Raven, Edward O. Wilson, et al.. (1989). Fourth International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Paleontology. 63(6). 944–944. 3 indexed citations
11.
Smith, John Maynard. (1989). The causes of extinction. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences. 325(1228). 241–252. 76 indexed citations
12.
Smith, John Maynard & David G. Harper. (1988). The evolution of aggression: can selection generate variability?. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences. 319(1196). 557–570. 245 indexed citations
13.
Smith, John Maynard. (1984). Evolution: Palaeontology at the high table. Nature. 309(5967). 401–402. 35 indexed citations
14.
Smith, John Maynard. (1983). THE GENETICS OF STASIS AND PUNCTUATION. Annual Review of Genetics. 17(1). 11–25. 92 indexed citations
15.
Smith, John Maynard & R. Holliday. (1979). The Evolution of adaptation by natural selection : a Royal Society discussion meeting. 3 indexed citations
16.
Haigh, John & John Maynard Smith. (1972). Population size and protein variation in man. Genetics Research. 19(1). 73–89. 43 indexed citations
17.
Smith, John Maynard. (1971). What use is sex?. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 30(2). 319–335. 304 indexed citations breakdown →
18.
Smith, John Maynard, et al.. (1961). Independence of Temperature of the Rate of Ageing in Drosophila subobscura. Nature. 190(4780). 1027–1028. 25 indexed citations
19.
Smith, John Maynard, et al.. (1960). THE GENETICS OF A PATTERN. Genetics. 45(8). 1039–1050. 96 indexed citations
20.
Smith, John Maynard & Susan M. Smith. (1954). Genetics and cytology ofdrosophila subobscura. Journal of Genetics. 52(1). 152–164. 23 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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