Kevin R. Foster

23.7k total citations · 11 hit papers
137 papers, 15.3k citations indexed

About

Kevin R. Foster is a scholar working on Genetics, Sociology and Political Science and Molecular Biology. According to data from OpenAlex, Kevin R. Foster has authored 137 papers receiving a total of 15.3k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 78 papers in Genetics, 60 papers in Sociology and Political Science and 46 papers in Molecular Biology. Recurrent topics in Kevin R. Foster's work include Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (60 papers), Evolution and Genetic Dynamics (46 papers) and Plant and animal studies (36 papers). Kevin R. Foster is often cited by papers focused on Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (60 papers), Evolution and Genetic Dynamics (46 papers) and Plant and animal studies (36 papers). Kevin R. Foster collaborates with scholars based in United Kingdom, United States and Switzerland. Kevin R. Foster's co-authors include Jonas Schlüter, Katharine Z. Coyte, João B. Xavier, Carey D. Nadell, Francis L. W. Ratnieks, Tom Wenseleers, Seth Rakoff-Nahoum, Sara Mitri, Thomas Bell and Knut Drescher and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science and Cell.

In The Last Decade

Kevin R. Foster

134 papers receiving 15.0k citations

Hit Papers

The ecology of the microbiome: Networks, competition,... 2008 2026 2014 2020 2015 2016 2017 2012 2008 500 1000 1.5k
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. The ecology of the microbiome: Networks, competition, and stability
    2015 1.8k citations Katharine Z. Coyte, Jonas Schlüter et al. profile →
  2. Spatial structure, cooperation and competition in biofilms
    2016 668 citations Carey D. Nadell, Kevin R. Foster et al. profile →
  3. The evolution of the host microbiome as an ecosystem on a leash
    2017 571 citations Kevin R. Foster, Jonas Schlüter et al. Nature profile →
  4. Competition, Not Cooperation, Dominates Interactions among Culturable Microbial Species
    2012 500 citations Kevin R. Foster et al. profile →
  5. The sociobiology of biofilms
    2008 488 citations Carey D. Nadell, João B. Xavier et al. profile →
  6. The evolution of cooperation within the gut microbiota
    2016 432 citations Seth Rakoff-Nahoum, Kevin R. Foster et al. Nature profile →
  7. The Evolution and Ecology of Bacterial Warfare
    2019 312 citations Elisa T. Granato, Kevin R. Foster et al. profile →
  8. Bacterial defences: mechanisms, evolution and antimicrobial resistance
    2023 219 citations William P. J. Smith, Carey D. Nadell et al. profile →
  9. Microbiome diversity protects against pathogens by nutrient blocking
    2023 196 citations Kevin R. Foster et al. profile →
  10. Bacterial species rarely work together
    2022 169 citations Kevin R. Foster et al. profile →
  11. Host control of the microbiome: Mechanisms, evolution, and disease
    2024 53 citations Kevin R. Foster et al. profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

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

Name h Career Trend Papers Cites
Kevin R. Foster United Kingdom 62 6.7k 5.4k 3.4k 3.1k 3.0k 137 15.3k
Angus Buckling United Kingdom 71 5.6k 0.8× 7.8k 1.4× 3.6k 1.1× 6.4k 2.1× 2.2k 0.7× 233 15.9k
Paul B. Rainey New Zealand 64 5.9k 0.9× 6.1k 1.1× 2.6k 0.8× 3.5k 1.1× 1.6k 0.6× 184 13.8k
Brendan J. M. Bohannan United States 61 7.5k 1.1× 3.0k 0.6× 1.5k 0.5× 8.9k 2.9× 1.8k 0.6× 134 19.5k
Bruce R. Levin United States 67 4.7k 0.7× 6.4k 1.2× 1.7k 0.5× 4.2k 1.4× 786 0.3× 159 15.6k
Richard E. Lenski United States 95 14.1k 2.1× 20.7k 3.8× 8.1k 2.4× 6.6k 2.1× 3.6k 1.2× 265 30.9k
Stuart A. West United Kingdom 82 4.0k 0.6× 10.4k 1.9× 8.6k 2.6× 3.4k 1.1× 9.4k 3.2× 294 24.8k
Ashleigh S. Griffin United Kingdom 42 2.4k 0.4× 5.2k 1.0× 4.6k 1.4× 2.0k 0.7× 4.1k 1.4× 86 10.7k
Michael Doebeli Canada 52 3.0k 0.4× 7.3k 1.4× 6.1k 1.8× 4.4k 1.4× 3.1k 1.0× 156 15.8k
Stephen P. Diggle United Kingdom 53 8.1k 1.2× 4.0k 0.7× 1.5k 0.4× 1.7k 0.5× 559 0.2× 92 11.8k
James J. Bull United States 64 6.0k 0.9× 9.6k 1.8× 1.7k 0.5× 6.0k 1.9× 6.6k 2.2× 203 22.6k

Countries citing papers authored by Kevin R. Foster

Since Specialization
Citations

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

Fields of papers citing papers by Kevin R. Foster

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Kevin R. Foster. 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 Kevin R. Foster. The network helps show where Kevin R. Foster may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Kevin R. Foster

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Kevin R. Foster. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Kevin R. Foster 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 Kevin R. Foster. Kevin R. Foster 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.
Foster, Kevin R., et al.. (2025). Bacterial warfare is associated with virulence and antimicrobial resistance. Nature Communications. 16(1). 9329–9329.
2.
Foster, Kevin R., et al.. (2024). Individual bacterial cells can use spatial sensing of chemical gradients to direct chemotaxis on surfaces. Nature Microbiology. 9(9). 2308–2322. 14 indexed citations
3.
Booth, Sean C., et al.. (2024). Cell motility empowers bacterial contact weapons. The ISME Journal. 18(1). 6 indexed citations
4.
Granato, Elisa T., William P. J. Smith, & Kevin R. Foster. (2023). Collective protection against the type VI secretion system in bacteria. The ISME Journal. 17(7). 1052–1062. 24 indexed citations
5.
Oliveira, Nuno M., et al.. (2022). Suicidal chemotaxis in bacteria. Nature Communications. 13(1). 7608–7608. 15 indexed citations
6.
Hansen, Mads Frederik, Heiko T. Kiesewalter, Jakob Russel, et al.. (2022). Biofilm cultivation facilitates coexistence and adaptive evolution in an industrial bacterial community. npj Biofilms and Microbiomes. 8(1). 59–59. 15 indexed citations
7.
Niehus, René, Nuno M. Oliveira, Aming Li, Alexander G. Fletcher, & Kevin R. Foster. (2021). The evolution of strategy in bacterial warfare via the regulation of bacteriocins and antibiotics. eLife. 10. 45 indexed citations
8.
Foster, Kevin R., Jonas Schlüter, Katharine Z. Coyte, & Seth Rakoff-Nahoum. (2017). The evolution of the host microbiome as an ecosystem on a leash. Nature. 548(7665). 43–51. 571 indexed citations breakdown →
9.
Walsh, Edmond J., et al.. (2017). Microfluidics with fluid walls. Nature Communications. 8(1). 816–816. 93 indexed citations
10.
Oliveira, Nuno M., Kevin R. Foster, & William M. Durham. (2016). Single-cell twitching chemotaxis in developing biofilms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113(23). 6532–6537. 61 indexed citations
11.
Oliveira, Nuno M., René Niehus, & Kevin R. Foster. (2014). Evolutionary limits to cooperation in microbial communities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111(50). 17941–17946. 162 indexed citations
12.
Schlüter, Jonas, Carey D. Nadell, Bonnie L. Bassler, & Kevin R. Foster. (2014). Adhesion as a weapon in microbial competition. The ISME Journal. 9(1). 139–149. 143 indexed citations
13.
Kim, Wook, Fernando Racimo, Jonas Schlüter, Stuart B. Levy, & Kevin R. Foster. (2014). Importance of positioning for microbial evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111(16). E1639–47. 114 indexed citations
14.
Molin, Søren, Kevin R. Foster, Stephen P. Diggle, et al.. (2014). Loss of Social Behaviours in Populations of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infecting Lungs of Patients with Cystic Fibrosis. PLoS ONE. 9(1). e83124–e83124. 57 indexed citations
15.
Koschwanez, John H., Kevin R. Foster, & Andrew W. Murray. (2011). Correction: Sucrose Utilization in Budding Yeast as a Model for the Origin of Undifferentiated Multicellularity. PLoS Biology. 9(8). 27 indexed citations
16.
Xavier, João B. & Kevin R. Foster. (2007). Cooperation and conflict in microbial biofilms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104(3). 876–881. 385 indexed citations
17.
Foster, Kevin R., et al.. (2007). Exploiting new terrain: an advantage to sociality in the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum. Behavioral Ecology. 18(2). 433–437. 36 indexed citations
18.
Foster, Kevin R., Katie Parkinson, & Christopher R. L. Thompson. (2007). What can microbial genetics teach sociobiology?. Trends in Genetics. 23(2). 74–80. 76 indexed citations
19.
Foster, Kevin R., et al.. (2005). A cost to chimerism in Dictyostelium discoideum on natural substrates. Evolutionary ecology research. 7(2). 263–271. 25 indexed citations
20.
Foster, Kevin R.. (2002). Downsizing: An Examination of the Consequences of Mass Layoffs. ˜The œJournal of private enterprise. 17(2). 109–130. 2 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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