Salomon Smith Barney has been tagged as the top research shop on Wall Street for 2001 by Institutional Investor magazine.

According to the magazine’s scorecard, released this morning, Salomon takes top spot, up from third place last year. CSFB rates second, up from fourth last year. Last year’s co-leaders, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, slipped to third and fourth respectively. Lehman Brothers rounds out the top five, vaulting up from eighth place last year.

No Canadian firms made the list of the top 15 firms. Other notable moves in the rankings include Goldman Sachs slipping from fifth place to seventh.

The big gainers are UBS Warburg, which jumped to eighth place from 17th place last year, thanks partly to the addition of PaineWebber. Also, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown rose to ninth place from 14th.