Every year, the Science Network agency conducts a study and identifies a list of scientists whose citation rate is the highest in the world. This rating includes only a tenth of 1% of all scientists on the planet, which makes the people on the list unique people of their time. Analysts examined the most cited articles written by scientists who work in different universities around the world, and compiled this rating on their basis.
Citations – what is it?
Under the term "citation" lies an indicator from scientometrics, which allows to assess the scientific achievements of the figure: for example, to determine the level of his productivity, the fame of the scientist and his work in wide scientific circles, the effectiveness of the implementation of the grants received. The more often the work of a scientist appears in other works as quotations and excerpts, the higher the influence of the figure on the sphere, since his thoughts and arguments are trusted by colleagues from all over the world and risk their reputation by citing these works as an example.
The level of citation is formed from the number of mentions of the scientist's work in other works of professors who left a link to the original text. All mentions are entered into the database, are counted - so they identify the most cited scientists.
The most authoritative agencies involved in compiling the citation index are the Web of Science and Scopus - they have been creating databases for many years that undergo a multi-stage verification of experts and include official scientific publications.
Previously, citation was a term used within the scientific field as a necessary indicator that allowed you to track the flow of information. Now, investors are also focused on citations, who are ready to invest a lot of money in the development of universities and institutes where the most cited scientists work.
Which countries lead the ranking?
In the ranking for 2021, there are over 6100 professors from almost 70 countries of the planet working in 21 scientific fields.
- Most of all in this list were scientists from the United States of America - they took about 42% of all places.
- The second place went to Chinese scientists , who took 21% of all lines.
- The last country in the top three was the UK, professors from which took 8% of the total rating.
Of the 6100 participants in the ranking, 26 scientists are Nobel Prize winners. Modern science depends on these people, since their arguments, studies and conclusions directly affect what their colleagues from all over the world will say.
The most frequently mentioned university on the list is an educational institution from the United States of America – Harvard University: 188 scientists included in the list teach at Harvard. 106 scientists from the list now work in another American university – at Stanford University.
