The pikeEsox luciusis a large, long-lived, iteroparous, top- predator fish species with a circumpolardistribution that occupies a broad range of aquatic environments. This study reports on a literaturesearch and demonstrates that the publication rate ofE. luciusresearch increases both in absolute termsand relative to total scientific output, and that the focus of investigation has changed over time frombeing dominated by studies on physiology and disease to being gradually replaced by studies on ecol-ogy and evolution.Esox luciuscan be exploited as a model in future research for identifying causes andconsequences of phenotypic and genetic variation at the levels of individuals, populations and speciesas well as for investigating community processes.