Stuart A. West

38.1k total citations · 10 hit papers
294 papers, 24.8k citations indexed

About

Stuart A. West is a scholar working on Genetics, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics and Sociology and Political Science. According to data from OpenAlex, Stuart A. West has authored 294 papers receiving a total of 24.8k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 181 papers in Genetics, 162 papers in Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics and 131 papers in Sociology and Political Science. Recurrent topics in Stuart A. West's work include Plant and animal studies (136 papers), Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (131 papers) and Evolution and Genetic Dynamics (111 papers). Stuart A. West is often cited by papers focused on Plant and animal studies (136 papers), Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (131 papers) and Evolution and Genetic Dynamics (111 papers). Stuart A. West collaborates with scholars based in United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Stuart A. West's co-authors include Ashleigh S. Griffin, Andy Gardner, Stephen P. Diggle, E. Toby Kiers, Angus Buckling, Ben C. Sheldon, Edward Allen Herre, Maxwell N. Burton-Chellew, R. Ford Denison and Ido Pen and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In The Last Decade

Stuart A. West

289 papers receiving 24.1k citations

Hit Papers

Reciprocal Rewards Stabilize Cooperation in the Mycorr... 2002 2026 2010 2018 2011 2006 2006 2004 2007 400 800 1.2k
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. Reciprocal Rewards Stabilize Cooperation in the Mycorrhizal Symbiosis
    2011 1.3k citations E. Toby Kiers, Stuart A. West et al. Science profile →
  2. Social semantics: altruism, cooperation, mutualism, strong reciprocity and group selection
    2006 1.1k citations Stuart A. West, Ashleigh S. Griffin et al. Journal of Evolutionary Biology profile →
  3. Social evolution theory for microorganisms
    2006 845 citations Stuart A. West, Ashleigh S. Griffin et al. Nature Reviews Microbiology profile →
  4. Cooperation and competition in pathogenic bacteria
    2004 749 citations Ashleigh S. Griffin, Stuart A. West et al. Nature profile →
  5. Evolutionary Explanations for Cooperation
    2007 688 citations Stuart A. West, Ashleigh S. Griffin et al. profile →
  6. Host sanctions and the legume–rhizobium mutualism
    2003 680 citations E. Toby Kiers, Stuart A. West et al. Nature profile →
  7. Cooperation and conflict in quorum-sensing bacterial populations
    2007 620 citations Stephen P. Diggle, Ashleigh S. Griffin et al. Nature profile →
  8. Cooperation and Competition Between Relatives
    2002 596 citations Stuart A. West, Ashleigh S. Griffin et al. Science profile →
  9. The Social Lives of Microbes
    2007 508 citations Stuart A. West, Stephen P. Diggle et al. profile →
  10. Major evolutionary transitions in individuality
    2015 260 citations Stuart A. West, Andy Gardner et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

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

Name h Career Trend Papers Cites
Stuart A. West United Kingdom 82 10.4k 9.4k 8.6k 4.3k 4.0k 294 24.8k
Marcus W. Feldman United States 83 16.8k 1.6× 4.5k 0.5× 9.5k 1.1× 2.6k 0.6× 6.5k 1.6× 558 36.8k
Richard C Lewontin United States 69 11.3k 1.1× 5.0k 0.5× 4.5k 0.5× 2.8k 0.6× 4.9k 1.2× 269 27.5k
David C. Queller United States 59 9.7k 0.9× 8.3k 0.9× 3.6k 0.4× 1.4k 0.3× 2.3k 0.6× 217 15.5k
Eric L. Charnov United States 68 5.9k 0.6× 12.8k 1.4× 2.7k 0.3× 2.6k 0.6× 1.6k 0.4× 165 30.5k
Michael J. Wade United States 64 7.5k 0.7× 8.8k 0.9× 2.8k 0.3× 1.5k 0.4× 1.5k 0.4× 217 15.6k
Michael Doebeli Canada 52 7.3k 0.7× 3.1k 0.3× 6.1k 0.7× 1.4k 0.3× 3.0k 0.7× 156 15.8k
James F. Crow United States 54 13.6k 1.3× 4.0k 0.4× 3.1k 0.4× 3.6k 0.8× 4.9k 1.2× 225 21.4k
Steven A. Frank United States 53 6.0k 0.6× 3.9k 0.4× 3.5k 0.4× 1.3k 0.3× 1.5k 0.4× 177 10.8k
François Rousset France 63 26.3k 2.5× 9.2k 1.0× 1.9k 0.2× 5.1k 1.2× 7.6k 1.9× 178 41.7k
David Sloan Wilson United States 60 4.4k 0.4× 5.6k 0.6× 3.9k 0.5× 670 0.2× 3.0k 0.8× 135 17.0k

Countries citing papers authored by Stuart A. West

Since Specialization
Citations

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

Fields of papers citing papers by Stuart A. West

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Stuart A. West. 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 Stuart A. West. The network helps show where Stuart A. West may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Stuart A. West

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Stuart A. West. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Stuart A. West 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 Stuart A. West. Stuart A. West 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.
Frost, Isabel, Sarah Hierons, Tessa Moses, et al.. (2025). Bacteria encode post-mortem protein catabolism that enables altruistic nutrient recycling. Nature Communications. 16(1). 1400–1400. 2 indexed citations
2.
Scott, Thomas W., et al.. (2024). Genes for cooperation are not more likely to be carried by plasmids. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. 291(2017). 20232549–20232549. 3 indexed citations
3.
Santos, Miguel dos, Philip A. Downing, Ashleigh S. Griffin, Charlie K. Cornwallis, & Stuart A. West. (2024). Altruism and natural selection in a variable environment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121(38). e2402974121–e2402974121. 2 indexed citations
4.
Cornwallis, Charlie K., Anouk van ’t Padje, Jacintha Ellers, et al.. (2023). Symbioses shape feeding niches and diversification across insects. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 7(7). 1022–1044. 50 indexed citations
5.
Abe, Jun, Ryosuke Iritani, Koji Tsuchida, Yoshitaka Kamimura, & Stuart A. West. (2021). A solution to a sex ratio puzzle inMelittobiawasps. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118(20). 6 indexed citations
6.
Werner, Gijsbert D. A., Johannes H. C. Cornelissen, William K. Cornwell, et al.. (2018). Symbiont switching and alternative resource acquisition strategies drive mutualism breakdown. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115(20). 5229–5234. 81 indexed citations
7.
Irie, Yasuhiko, Aled E. L. Roberts, Kasper Nørskov Kragh, et al.. (2017). The Pseudomonas aeruginosa PSL Polysaccharide Is a Social but Noncheatable Trait in Biofilms. mBio. 8(3). 56 indexed citations
8.
Levin, Samuel R. & Stuart A. West. (2017). The evolution of cooperation in simple molecular replicators. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. 284(1864). 20171967–20171967. 13 indexed citations
9.
West, Stuart A. & Guy Alexander Cooper. (2016). Division of labour in microorganisms: an evolutionary perspective. Nature Reviews Microbiology. 14(11). 716–723. 126 indexed citations
10.
Cunningham, John Paul, James Hereward, Tim A. Heard, Paul J. De Barro, & Stuart A. West. (2014). Bees at War: Interspecific Battles and Nest Usurpation in Stingless Bees. The American Naturalist. 184(6). 777–786. 27 indexed citations
11.
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
12.
Raymond, Ben, Stuart A. West, Ashleigh S. Griffin, & Michael B. Bonsall. (2012). The Dynamics of Cooperative Bacterial Virulence in the Field. Science. 337(6090). 85–88. 90 indexed citations
13.
Burton-Chellew, Maxwell N. & Stuart A. West. (2012). Prosocial preferences do not explain human cooperation in public-goods games. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 110(1). 216–221. 107 indexed citations
14.
Darch, Sophie E., Stuart A. West, Klaus Winzer, & Stephen P. Diggle. (2012). Density-dependent fitness benefits in quorum-sensing bacterial populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109(21). 8259–8263. 213 indexed citations
15.
Kümmerli, Rolf, Pieter van den Berg, Ashleigh S. Griffin, Stuart A. West, & Andy Gardner. (2010). Repression of competition favours cooperation: experimental evidence from bacteria. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 23(4). 699–706. 26 indexed citations
16.
Burton-Chellew, Maxwell N., Edward M. Sykes, Sophie Patterson, David M. Shuker, & Stuart A. West. (2007). The cost of mating and the relationship between body size and fitness in males of the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis. Evolutionary ecology research. 9(6). 921–934. 43 indexed citations
17.
West, Stuart A., Ashleigh S. Griffin, & Andy Gardner. (2007). Social semantics: how useful has group selection been?. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 21(1). 374–385. 105 indexed citations
18.
Shuker, David M. & Stuart A. West. (2004). Information constraints and the precision of adaptation: Sex ratio manipulation in wasps. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101(28). 10363–10367. 105 indexed citations
19.
West, Stuart A. & David J. Allsop. (2004). Sex change and relative body size in animals (reply). Nature. 428(6983). 2–2. 1 indexed citations
20.
Allsop, David J. & Stuart A. West. (2004). Sex allocation in the sex-changing marine goby, Coryphopterus personatus, on atoll-fringing reefs. Evolutionary ecology research. 6(6). 843–855. 10 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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