Clarivate’s annual list of Highly Cited Researchers (HiCis) continues to grow and diversify, both institutionally and geographically, as well as generating controversy year after year.
Of Australia’s entries, 287 are spread across 31 universities and the remaining 25 are spread across 9 research organisations, including 14 at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
Melbourne tops the list among Australian universities with 33 entries, followed by UNSW and Queensland with 32 each. The newly established Adelaide University is fourth among Australian universities with 27 entries followed by Monash with 26.
Whilst the number of HiCis for these five institutions has increased from 116 in 2018 to 144 this year, their share among Australian universities has remained relatively unchanged over the past eight years.
Outside the Group of Eight research universities, Swinburne has 11, Deakin has 10, UTS has 8, and then QUT and RMIT have 7 each.
What’s the list about?
This year’s edition, released on 12 November, included 7,131 researchers, an increase of 245 (or 3.6%) compared to 6,886 last year.
This year’s list is the second largest (compared to the 2022 list, which included 7,225 researchers) since it became an annual event.
The list is all about recognising the world’s top researchers in their chosen field(s) as seen through the publication of papers indexed in the Essential Science Indicators, which have been cited the most during the past eleven years (2014-2024). The list ranks the world’s top one per cent of researchers based on citations.
This is also the eighth year in which Clarivate includes a category of researchers with cross-field impact. The proportion of researchers in cross fields has increased from 33.2% in 2018 to 50% this year. This illustrates the increased significance of multidisciplinary research endeavours across the world.
Influence on rankings
Those familiar with the construct of global rankings know that the list counts 20% towards the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), produced by ShanghaiRankings. This helps to explain why many universities issue press releases to celebrate the successes of their top achievers.
Shifting geographies of influence
Australia is fifth globally in the total number of entries at 312, compared to 313 last year or 245 in 2018. For a third consecutive year, Australia has not seen an increase in the number of entries after peaking at 337 in 2022. Australia’s global share of entries stands at 4.4% compared to 4.0% in 2018.
The United States continues to have the highest number of entries – 2,670 compared to 2,504 last year or 2639 in 2018. China is second with 1,406 compared to 1,404 last year or 482 in 2018. The United Kingdom is third with 570, compared to 562 last year or 546 in 2018. Germany is fourth with 363, compared to 332 last year or 356 in 2018.
Interestingly, the United States’ global share has decreased from 43.4% of entries in 2018 to 37.4% this year, whilst China has increased from 7.9% in 2018 to 19.7%.
Parting thoughts
It is worth noting that we see an increased spread of researchers among institutions who in previous years did not feature in Clarivate’s HiCi List.
These results bode well for several Australian universities to counter the adverse impact seen in this year’s ARWU. Stay tuned for a more comprehensive analysis as a wrap up for this year’s ranking season, which proved to be challenging for the majority of Australian universities.
Angel Calderon is Director, Strategic Insights at RMIT University.