Highly Cited Researchers

Highly Cited Researchers is a list published annually by Clarivate of academic authors who in the past eleven years have authored multiple highly cited publications in academic journals indexed by Web of Science. This list includes approximately 0.1% of the total worldwide number of scientific researchers.

History

The list has been published yearly since 2001.

In 2016, Clarivate sent a congratulatory email to many researchers who had not actually received the designation. It was not disclosed how many researchers the congratulations were erroneously sent to.

Over 1,000 researchers were excluded from the 2023 list in total, largely for unethical citation practices and other examples of poor academic integrity. Specifically, researchers affiliated with Saudi Arabian universities saw a sharp decline from the previous years' rankings in 2023. In April 2023, El País revealed that Saudi universities had been paying researchers to add their institution as an affiliation. After correction, the number of HCRs affiliated with Saudi institutions dropped by 30%. Following the incident, Clarivate released a statement supporting integrity in researcher affiliations.

For the first time in eight years, 2025 saw the US win back some of its share from China. After dropping 7% from 2018–2024, the share of US-affiliated researchers increased 1% in 2025. This trend reversal was attributed by Clarivate primarily to adjustments to its methodology designed to exclude extremely prolific authorship.

Trend analysis

The percentage of HCRs affiliated with institutions from mainland China was only 0.1% in 2001, but by 2016 it had risen to 3.5%, reflecting the increased spending on research conducted by Chinese colleges and universities, though during this time, the number of affiliations specifically to the Chinese Academy of Sciences decreased. The rate of Chinese HCRs continued to increase each year until 2024, at which point 20% of all HCRs were affiliated with a Chinese institution.

The percentage of US-affiliated HCRs reached a low of 37% in 2024; it has been steadily declining since 2018, at which time 43% of all HCRs were affiliated with a US institution.

The proportion of women in the HCR list has been studied, with results suggesting that research by women receives less citations, as they represented only 16% of the researchers on the list. Research has also shown that in the fields of chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, and physics and astronomy, where the biggest disparity occurs, women constitute 4–7% of the HCRs although they make up over 25% of authors in the field. (For further information, see: Women in STEM fields and Sexism in academia)

Methodology

As of their 2022 list, Clarivate uses "performance statistics" from data in the Web of Science. There are 21 specific fields, and one for interdisciplinary science—Clarivate creates a list of papers that are in the top 1% most highly cited in their field, and admission to the HCR list is based on an author's number of papers in the top 1%.

The resulting list of highly cited researchers can be manipulated by citation cartels. After it was found that obscure researchers had displaced eminent mathematicians in the list, Clarivate had to remove the whole field of mathematics from the list in 2023. The mathematics category was reintroduced in 2025 after Clarivate revised its methodology to better filter out hyper-prolific researchers whose citations exaggerate their influence.

Prestige

Many institutions in the US post a press release, blog post, or news story upon a faculty member being recognized in the program.

Usage

The list of HCRs has been used to create a specific list of authoritative researchers; one study specifically used HCRs to show trends of retractions in Iran.

As of 2019, the list is also used as a factor in determining the rank of a college in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, which uses the number of affiliated HCRs in its ranking criteria.

Notes

  1. ↑ Excluding retracted papers and those with more than 30 authors and/or explicit group authorship.
  2. ↑ See, for example:

References

  1. ↑ "Highly Cited Researchers - FAQs". Clarivate. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  2. ↑ "Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers". Clarivate. 20 November 2025. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  3. ↑ "HCR 2023 guidance for PR departments". Clarivate. Archived from the original on 10 November 2023. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  4. ↑ Teixeira da Silva, Jaime A.; Bernès, Sylvain (February 2018). "Clarivate Analytics: Continued Omnia vanitas Impact Factor Culture". Science and Engineering Ethics. 24 (1): 291–297. doi:10.1007/s11948-017-9873-7. ISSN 1353-3452. PMID 28233146. S2CID 24412956.
  5. ↑ Jack, Patrick (18 November 2023). "Over 1,000 excluded from highly cited researcher list for 'fraud'". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  6. ↑ Catanzaro, Michele (27 November 2023). "Saudi universities lose highly cited researchers after payment schemes raise ethics concerns". ScienceInsider. doi:10.1126/science.zhs1429.
  7. ↑ Ansede, Manuel (18 April 2023). "Saudi Arabia pays Spanish scientists to pump up global university rankings". EL PAÍS. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  8. ↑ Ansede, Manuel (25 November 2023). "The list of the world's most-cited scientists excludes 1,000 researchers over fraudulent practices". EL PAÍS. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  9. ↑ "Clarivate statement on Highly Cited Researcher affiliations". Clarivate. 25 April 2023. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Highly Cited Researchers Analysis 2025". Archived from the original on 20 May 2026. Retrieved 18 September 2026.
  11. ↑ Li, John Tianci (24 April 2018). "On the advancement of highly cited research in China: An analysis of the Highly Cited database". PLoS ONE. 13 (4) e0196341. Bibcode:2018PLoSO..1396341L. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0196341. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 5918168. PMID 29689100.
  12. ↑ Shamsi, Amrollah; Lund, Brady; Mansourzadeh, Mohammad Javad (7 January 2022). "Gender Disparities Among Highly Cited Researchers in Biomedicine, 2014-2020". JAMA Network Open. 5 (1): e2142513. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.42513. ISSN 2574-3805. PMC 8742200. PMID 34994797.
  13. ↑ Meho, Lokman I. (2022). "Gender gap among highly cited researchers, 2014–2021". Quantitative Science Studies. 3 (4): 1003–1023. doi:10.1162/qss_a_00218. ISSN 2641-3337.
  14. ↑ Klein, Alexandra-Maria; Kranke, Nina (1 December 2023). "Some thoughts on transparency of the data and analysis behind the Highly Cited Researchers list". Scientometrics. 128 (12): 6773–6780. doi:10.1007/s11192-023-04852-w. ISSN 1588-2861.
  15. ↑ Citation cartels help some mathematicians—and their universities—climb the rankings (Report). 30 January 2024. doi:10.1126/science.zcl2s6d.
  16. ↑ "UC researchers among the most influential in the world, according to Clarivate's 2023 Highly Cited Researchers list". University of California.
  17. ↑ "Harvard Chan School faculty among most highly cited in the world". Harvard University.
  18. ↑ "Numerous Scripps Research scientists named Highly Cited Researchers". Scripps Research.
  19. ↑ "'Highly cited' St. Jude scientists named to annual list". St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
  20. ↑ "Clarivate announces Highly Cited Researchers 2023". University of Washington.
  21. ↑ Kamali, Negin; Rahimi, Farid; Talebi Bezmin Abadi, Amin (1 April 2022). "Learning from Retracted Papers Authored by the Highly Cited Iran-affiliated Researchers: Revisiting Research Policies and a Key Message to Clarivate Analytics". Science and Engineering Ethics. 28 (2): 18. doi:10.1007/s11948-022-00368-3. ISSN 1471-5546. PMID 35362834. S2CID 255425939.
  22. ↑ Docampo, Domingo; Cram, Lawrence (1 March 2019). "Highly cited researchers: a moving target". Scientometrics. 118 (3): 1011–1025. doi:10.1007/s11192-018-2993-2. ISSN 0138-9130. S2CID 59259748.

Further reading

See also