Clarivate Releases Highly Cited Researchers 2022 List
From Clarivate:
The methodology draws on data from the Web of Science™ citation index, together with analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)™ at Clarivate.
ISI analysts have awarded Highly Cited Researcher 2022 designations to 6,938 researchers from across the globe who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields over the last decade. The list is truly global, spanning 69 countries or regions and spread across a diverse range of research fields in the sciences and social sciences.
This year Clarivate extended the qualitative analysis of the Highly Cited Researchers list, to address increasing concerns over potential misconduct (such as plagiarism, image manipulation, fake peer review). With the assistance of Retraction Watch and its unparalleled database of retractions, Clarivate analysts searched for evidence of misconduct in all publications of those on the preliminary list of Highly Cited Researchers. Researchers found to have committed scientific misconduct in formal proceedings conducted by a researcher’s institution, a government agency, a funder or a publisher are excluded from the list of Highly Cited Researchers.
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The key findings for 2022 show:
- 6,938 researchers from 69 countries and regions have been named this year. Some extraordinary researchers are recognized in multiple Essential Science Indicators™ (ESI) research fields: 219 named in two fields, 28 named in three fields and 4 named in four fields. Their achievements are truly exceptional and indicate broad, multidisciplinary influence among their peers. Overall, there are 3,981 awards in specific fields and 3,244 awards for cross-field impact, totalling 7,225 awards across all of the individual researchers named this year.
- The United States is the institutional home for 2,764 of the Highly Cited Researchers in 2022, which amounts to 38.3% of the total list, down from 43.3% in 2018. While the slow downward loss of share continues for U.S.-based Highly Cited Researchers, the U.S. clearly still leads the world in research influence.
- Mainland China is second this year, with 1,169 Highly Cited Researchers – continuing to close the gap with the U.S. In five years, Mainland China has more than doubled its share of the Highly Cited Researchers population – from 7.9% in 2018 to 16.2% this year.
- The United Kingdom comes in third with 579 researchers or 8.0%. This is a remarkably high number of researchers at the very top of their fields in terms of citation impact, given that the United Kingdom has a population 1/5 the size of the United States and 1/20 the size of Mainland China.
- Germany has pulled ahead of Australia this year – placing Germany at fourth with 369 researchers, and Australia at fifth with 337 researchers. Behind them are Canada (226), the Netherlands (210), France (134), Switzerland (112) and Singapore (106) which is new to the top 10 this year as Spain drops down.
- Harvard University, home to 233 researchers on the list, is once again the institution with the highest concentration of Highly Cited Researchers in the world. Governmental and publicly funded research organizations also feature strongly in the institutional top 10: the Chinese Academy of Sciences comes in second overall (228), narrowing the gap with Harvard, followed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (113) and Germany’s Max Planck Society (67). The University of Pennsylvania has joined the top 10 this year, jumping 7 slots from number 17 in 2021.
Figure 1: Highly Cited Researchers by country/region
Ranking Country/Region Number HCRs % Change % Share 2018 to 2022 1 United States 2,764 38.3 -5.0 2 China Mainland 1,169 16.2 8.3 3 United Kingdom 579 8 -1.0 4 Germany 369 5.1 -0.8 5 Australia 337 4.7 0.7 6 Canada 226 3.1 0.4 7 The Netherlands 210 2.9 -0.2 8 France 134 1.9 -0.7 9 Switzerland 112 1.6 -0.6 10 Singapore 106 1.5 0.2 Figure 2: Highly Cited Researchers by research institution or organization
Ranking Institution and Country/Region Number HCRs 1 Harvard University, United States 233 2 Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Mainland 228 3 Stanford University, United States 126 4 National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States 113 5 Tsinghua University, China Mainland 73 6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States 71 7 Max Planck Society, Germany 67 8 University of California San Diego, United States 66 9 University of Oxford, United Kingdom 63 10 University of Pennsylvania, United States 62
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About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.