RCSB PDB services have broad impact across research and education. The inaugural RCSB PDB citation is one of the top-cited scientific publications of all time. 

A 2017 bibliometric analysis performed by Clarivate Analytics (PDF) shows PDB motivated high-quality research throughout the world. Papers citing the inaugural RCSB PDB publication had a citation-based impact exceeding the world-average in 16 scientific fields including Biology & Biochemistry, Computer Science, Plant & Animal Sciences, Physics, Environment/Ecology, Mathematics and Geosciences.

• Primary RCSB PDB reference: The Protein Data Bank Nucleic Acids Res Berman et al. 28: 235-242 (2000) doi: 10.1093/nar/28.1.235
• Analysis of impact metrics for the Protein Data Bank (2018) Scientific Data 5: 180212 doi: 10.1038/sdata.2018.212
• Bibliometric analysis: Impact Analysis of “Berman HM et al., (2000), The Protein Data Bank" J. Basner (2017) doi: 10.2210/rcsb_pdb/pdb-cit-anal-2017 (PDF)
• Reflection from Helen Berman on the inaugural RCSB PDB publication (2014) Establishing the Next Generation of the Protein Data Bank The Winnower doi: 10.15200/winn.140076.68556.
• The top 100 papers. Nature (2014) 514: 550-553 doi: 10.1038/514550a