Atlas of scientific institutions in food science (Scopus, 2003–2013)

• Research of the top 645 research institutions worldwide in food science is assessed.
• An interactive map was generated with top research institutions in Food Science.
• States, South Korea, Spain, and China have most top institutions in Food Science.
• Many developing and food exporting countries have no significant research in FS.

Bibliometric indicators are used to characterize the research activity of institutions worldwide with production in the period 2003–2013 in journals that are indexed in Scopus's Food Science thematic category. Basic, normalized indicators were used to compare the institutions' performances, together with highly cited papers (top-10% and top-1%). An interactive map was generated, displaying the 645 institutions with at least 100 documents produced during this period. The greatest numbers of those institutions are in the United States, South Korea, Spain, and China. National collaboration networks were detected on the East and West Coasts of the United States, and in Canada, Ireland, France, Spain, Holland, Denmark, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Brazil, India, Argentina, and Nigeria. There was no significant research activity in many developing and food exporting countries located in sub-Saharan Africa, North and East Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South East Asia. The need to take into account other criteria based on qualitative attributes and the inherent limitations in the bibliometric indicators are discussed.