Oxford’s academics are the most cited researchers in the UK and the second most cited in all of Europe, a report by Clarivate suggests. Oxford boasts 52 individuals on the 2020 Highly Cite Researchers List, out of a total of 6167 worldwide.
Professor Patrick Grant, the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) at Oxford, said: “We are fortunate to have so many eminent researchers who are addressing many of the world’s most pressing problems and exciting opportunities. Their work and the impact it produces inspires us all.
“This global recognition of individuals also speaks to the excellence of the research students, early career researchers and staff who support and contribute to our research.”
According to the list, Harvard University in the US remains the most cited institution (188 researchers) in the world and the Max Planck Society in Germany remains the most cited institution in Europe (70 researchers).
China has experienced a major surge in influential research over the past decade, going from 636 researchers making up 10.2% of the list in 2019 to 770 researchers making up 12.1% of the list in 2020. In particular, Tsinghua University in Beijing has moved from 19th place to 9th place in just one year. This places China in second place for research influence, below the USA and above the UK.
The list is assembled by analysing the top 1% most cited papers across 21 fields from 2009-2019. To be featured, an academic must have published a large number of highly cited papers and have a large number of total citations. The threshold value for a paper to be classified as ‘highly cited’ differs across fields, with Clinical Medicine requiring the highest threshold and Economics and Business requiring the lowest.
David Pendlebury, a Senior Citation Analyst at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate, said: “In the race for knowledge, it is human capital that is fundamental and this list identifies and celebrates exceptional individual researchers at Oxford University who are having a great impact on the research community as measured by the rate at which their work is being cited by others.”
Laura Herz, Associate Head of the MPLS Division (Research), added: “I am really delighted to be included in the 2020 Highly Cited Researchers List. It’s fantastic to see so many researchers from a number of different MPLS (Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences) Departments represented which demonstrates the strong research base we have within the Division and across the University as a whole.”
Image Credit: Bob Collowan, CC-BY-SA-4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
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