Clarivate Analytics has released its Highly Cited Researchers List for the year 2017. These scientists have produced many highly cited papers in the Web of Science between 2005 and 2015. Clarivate Analytics chose the authors based on their consistency of number of cited papers. A highly cited paper would be in the top one per cent for citations for a field and publication year. The Highly Cited Researchers List highlights the global position of different countries according to the progress of science and research.
The Highly Cited Researchers
Clarivate Analytics used Essential Science Indicators to create this list. This program uses performance metrics, publication counts, and citation data from Web of Science to rank the authors. The list ranks more than 3,000 researchers in 21 different fields.The top three countries on the list are the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. USA has 1,600 highly cited papers, that marks a 13% increase over last year. The United Kingdom has 350 entries. China had 240 entries on the list, making a 34% increase over last year. This clearly indicates the rise in the growth of science and research in China.
Finland and Singapore had less than 30 authors on the list but this is a notable increase from last year. Harvard University had 109 entries. Stanford University was second with 64 authors on the list. The Max Planck Society in Germany was third with 47 authors. The Chinese Academy of Science was fourth in the world with 45 entries.
The Hottest Papers
Clarivate Analytics also released a Hot Papers list. Authors on this list have written many papers that rapidly acquire citations. There are 21 scientists on this list. Each of them have published at least 14 Hot Papers. Most of the researchers on this list are currently working on either cancer genomics or using perovskite to generate solar power.
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Michael Grätzel has 29 Hot Papers on perovskite. He is a physical chemistry professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Henry Snaith, from University of Oxford, England, is tied for first place with Grätzel with an identical number of perovskite papers. Both of them are on the Highly Cited Researchers List. Grätzel has written papers in four different fields of research. Snaith has written papers in three.
Life science researchers hold 11 positions on the Hot Papers list. The highest ranked life science researcher is Eric Lander. He has worked on the Cancer Atlas Genome Project. He has 21 Hot papers. Feng Zhang is also on the list. This is not surprising as he is one of the pioneers of the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technique.
The Rise of China
China has had the most remarkable increase in citations of any country on the list. China has focused a lot of attention on engineering research. In this category, China leads the Highly Cited Researchers List with 51 authors. This is almost double of the highly cited list of researchers for the country coming second, the USA. China is also at the second position to the USA in computer science. The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences is the top ranked Chinese institution on the list.
Experts at Clarivate Analytics are also impressed with the tremendous development in the field of science and research. David Pendelbury, who is a Senior Citations Analyst at Clarivate Analytics, has a positive opinion on China’s rise. He stated that China’s publication output and research influence have seen dramatic increase over the last two decades. This includes more Chinese authors and papers being highly cited. China’s output of materials science papers is now more than double of that of the United States. China is also increasingly capturing a larger share of the top cited papers in that area.
The Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers List is prestigious. Perhaps the most interesting finding in the list is how well Chinese scientists have been performing. They have had the marked increase in representation of any country in the world. In many ways, China is becoming a research leader.
Is there anyone on the list who surprises you? Were you aware of the role of perovskite in green energy? Have you read any of the Hot Papers? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
