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After F1000Prime published its 150,000th article recommendation last week, we reflect on some of the most influential biomedical articles of the last 3 years, as selected and rated by the F1000Prime Faculty.

It’s almost 3 years exactly since we reached the milestone of 100,000 articles being recommended in F1000Prime. So, since January 2011, which articles have had the most impact with the F1000 Faculty? The top-ranking articles, based on their F1000 score, cover a variety of topics, from structural biology to intensive care medicine.

The top ranking article, with an F1000Prime score of 41, is a clinical practice-changing article that demonstrates that hydroxyethyl starch administered for fluid resuscitation in severe sepsis increases patients’ risk of death when compared with Ringer’s acetate. Despite being published less than two years ago, this article is already ranked third in F1000Prime’s all time top 10 scoring articles.

The top scoring article in F1000Prime’s Hidden Jewels describes a “revolutionary” technical advance in electron microscopy that allows researchers to see the localization of proteins in intact organisms. Hidden Jewels are important articles published in specialist journals or journals that may not be considered high profile outside their particular field*.

Keep reading for both full top 10 lists and an editorial summary of each article. The article recommendations for each article listed have been made free to access using the links from this blog. These top 10s are based on articles published between 2011 and 2013 that have the highest F1000Prime score. Where articles have the same F1000 score, the most viewed article is ranked highest.

Although F1000Prime recommendations are more rapid than citations – the average time from publication to recommendation in F1000Prime is 4 months – this approach to compiling top 10 articles may mean the newest articles are yet to accumulate their total score. Here, we’ve looked at a 3-year period and there are various other ways F1000Prime data could be used to produce article (and author) rankings. We welcome discussion and collaborations to explore the use of F1000Prime to produce author and article-level metrics. Elsewhere on the web, the journal Genome Biology has used F1000Prime scores to explore its most important papers, and Prof. Corey Bradshaw has highlighted important papers in conservation research published in 2013, according to F1000Prime, on his blog.

We’ll be looking at and discussing our rankings in a more granular, subject (Faculty)-specific, way in the future.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to identify a highly influential article please nominate it for inclusion in F1000Prime, or comment on this blog to start a discussion.

Top 10 articles published 2011-2013

1. [F1000Prime score: 41]
Hydroxyethyl starch 130/0.42 versus Ringer’s acetate in severe sepsis.
Perner A, Haase N, Guttormsen AB, Tenhunen J et al.  N Engl J Med. 2012 Jul 12; 367(2):124-34
This practice-changing article demonstrates that hydroxyethyl starch administered for fluid resuscitation in severe sepsis increases patients’ risk of death when compared with Ringer’s acetate.

2. [F1000Prime score: 35]
Structural and molecular interrogation of intact biological systems.
Chung K, Wallace J, Kim SY, Kalyanasundaram S et al.  Nature. 2013 May 16; 497(7449):332-7
The aptly named technique adopted in this study, CLARITY, allows us to see into complex intact biological systems and could shed light on the molecular processes behind physiological functions and disease.

3. [F1000Prime score: 35]
RNA mimics of green fluorescent protein.
Paige JS, Wu KY, Jaffrey SR. Science. 2011 Jul 29; 333(6042):642-6
An RNA-fluorophore complex called Spinach that is just like GFP in function and fluorescence colour shows that fluorescently tagged RNAs can be imaged in living cells.

4. [F1000Prime score: 28]
Local macrophage proliferation, rather than recruitment from the blood, is a signature of TH2 inflammation.
Jenkins SJ, Ruckerl D, Cook PC, Jones LH, et al. Science. 2011 Jun 10; 332(6035):1284-8
A revelatory study that demonstrates how local tissue macrophage proliferation, via the influence of interleukin-4, is favored over recruitment from the blood in T helper type 2-driven inflammation.

5. [F1000Prime score: 26]
Single-cell mass cytometry of differential immune and drug responses across a human hematopoietic continuum.
Bendall SC, Simonds EF, Qiu P, Amir el-AD et al.   Science. 2011 May 6; 332(6030):687-96
A novel technique, single-cell ‘mass cytometry’, allows us to delve deeper into cellular processes by enabling the measurement of many different parameters simultaneously.

6. [F1000Prime score: 26]
Mortality after fluid bolus in African children with severe infection.
Maitland K, Kiguli S, Opoka RO, Engoru C et al.   N Engl J Med. 2011 Jun 30; 364(26):2483-95
Another study scrutinising fluid resuscitation, this time in critically ill African children, highlights the danger of fluid bolus administration in a resource-limited setting.

7. [F1000Prime score: 26]
Crystal structure of the beta2 adrenergic receptor-Gs protein complex.
Rasmussen SG, DeVree BT, Zou Y, Kruse AC et al.   Nature. 2011 Jul 19; 477(7366):549-55
A milestone in structural biology, the crystal structure of the beta 2 adrenergic receptor is presented in complex with Gs and sharpens our knowledge of G-protein-coupled receptor signaling.

8. [F1000Prime score: 26]
Genomic responses in mouse models poorly mimic human inflammatory diseases.
Seok J, Warren HS, Cuenca AG, Mindrinos MN et al. Inflammation and Host Response to Injury, Large Scale Collaborative Research Program.   Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Feb 26; 110(9):3507-12
Mouse models of inflammatory disorders correlate surprisingly poorly with their human counterparts, with grave implications for drug research in this area.

9. [F1000Prime score: 25]
Vesicular glycolysis provides on-board energy for fast axonal transport.
Zala D, Hinckelmann MV, Yu H, Lyra da Cunha MM, et al. Cell. 2013 Jan 31; 152(3):479-91
A tour de force investigation reveals that fast vesicular transport along the great lengths of the axon uses its own ‘onboard’ energy source, rather than relying on the mitochondria.

10. [F1000Prime score: 25]
The crystal structure of a voltage-gated sodium channel.
Payandeh J, Scheuer T, Zheng N, Catterall WA. Nature. 2011 Jul 21; 475(7356):353-8
Described variously as a ‘breakthrough paper’, ‘absolutely beautiful’ and the ‘crowning glory of the Catterall lab’, the first crystal structure of a voltage-gated sodium channel is revealed.

Top 10 Hidden Jewels published 2011-2013

1. [F1000Prime score: 19]
A genetically encoded tag for correlated light and electron microscopy of intact cells, tissues, and organisms.
Shu X, Lev-Ram V, Deerinck TJ, Qi Y, Ramko EB, Davidson MW, Jin Y, Ellisman MH, Tsien RY. PLoS Biol. 2011 Apr; 9(4):e1001041
“Wow! The Tsien lab might have done it again…” A revolutionary technical advance in electron microscopy allows researchers to see the localization of proteins in intact organisms.

2. [F1000Prime score: 18]
On the immortality of television sets: “function” in the human genome according to the evolution-free gospel of ENCODE.
Graur D, Zheng Y, Price N, Azevedo RBR, et al. Genome Biol Evol. 2013 Jan; 5(3):578-90
A damning yet entertaining critique of the controversial ‘ENCODE’ study weighs in on the difference between ‘garbage’ and ‘junk’ in the human genome, taking a shot at mass-media hype on the way.

3. [F1000Prime score: 18]
Ribosome structures to near-atomic resolution from thirty thousand cryo-EM particles.
Bai XC, Fernandez IS, McMullan G, Scheres SH. elife. 2013; 2:e00461
Technical advances in both hardware and software use ‘movies’ to improve the resolution of electron cryo-microscopy to the near-atomic scale.

4. [F1000Prime score: 16]
Academia’s obsession with quantity.
Fischer J, Ritchie EG, Hanspach J. Trends Ecol Evol (Amst). 2012 Sep; 27(9):473-4
Is academia developing an unhealthy obsession with quantity? An eloquent look at whether scientific creativity is under threat from the treadmill of productivity.

5. [F1000Prime score: 16]
Natural and experimental infection of Caenorhabditis nematodes by novel viruses related to nodaviruses.
Félix MA, Ashe A, Piffaretti J, Wu G et al. PLoS Biol. 2011; 9(1):e1000586
Good news in the search for a new viral infection model, as two novel RNA viruses are discovered in wild isolates of the nematode worms C. elgans and C. briggsae.

6. [F1000Prime score: 15]
Sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide is a functional receptor for human hepatitis B and D virus.
Yan H, Zhong G, Xu G, He W, et al. elife. 2012; 1:e00049
Using “extraordinary efforts”, a receptor for hepatitis B and D viral entry is discovered – an important milestone in combating against the virus.

7. [F1000Prime score: 14]
BIS-guided anesthesia decreases postoperative delirium and cognitive decline.
Chan MTV, Cheng BCP, Lee TMC, Gin T, CODA Trial Group. J Neurosurg Anesthesiol. 2013 Jan; 25(1):33-42
An RCT finds that using bispectral index (BIS) imaging to lower anesthesia dosage decreases the risk of postoperative delirium and cognitive decline associated with deep anesthesia.

8. [F1000Prime score: 13]
Risk factors associated with ischemic optic neuropathy after spinal fusion surgery.
Postoperative Visual Loss Study Group. Anesthesiology. 2012 Jan; 116(1):15-24
A study that “provides the best elucidation to date” on the ongoing problem of postoperative visual loss after spinal fusion surgery and helps clinicians to evaluate the risks.

9. [F1000Prime score: 12]
CD169-positive macrophages dominate antitumor immunity by crosspresenting dead cell-associated antigens.
Asano K, Nabeyama A, Miyake Y, Qiu CH, et al. Immunity. 2011 Jan 28; 34(1):85-95
These findings have direct implications for vaccine design, in particular, for targeting antigen-presenting cells for the generation of optimum immune responses.

10. [F1000Prime score: 12]
Three-dimensional reconstruction of brain-wide wiring networks in Drosophila at single-cell resolution.
Chiang AS, Lin CY, Chuang CC, Chang HM, et al. Curr Biol. 2011 Jan 11; 21(1):1-11
A paper on “[t]he architecture of the fly brain” – the basic network building blocks of the Drosophila brain, including interconnecting axonal tracts – a major step towards the Drosophila connectome.

*The Hidden Jewels list excludes articles published in the journals: BMJ, Cell, JAMA, The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, Nature, PNAS, Science, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Genetics, Nature Immunology, Neuron, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Methods, Nature Chemistry.