The Academic Word List (AWL), a collection of academic words taken from a range of academic texts on a variety of subjects, created by Averil Coxhead (2000), contains 570 word families. The list is divided into ten sub-lists, decreasing in frequency. Although there is some controversy regarding certain aspects of the AWL, this list contains words that occur frequently in academic texts, and learning these words is crucial for students with academic goals.
AWL:
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/publications/awlsublists1.pdf