Australia rates fifth in the world for highly cited researchers

“Australian research institutes continue to punch above their weight,” data analytics provider Clarivate announces in its annual bibliometric analysis of Web of Science publishing records.

Researchers make the list for multiple highly-cited papers in journals ranked in the top 1 per cent by citations for field and publication year.

There are 305 Australian-based researchers on the new list, accounting for 4.8 per cent of the global total. The number is an increase on last year ‘s 271 and 4.4 per cent and Australia stays in fifth place.

Clarivate attributes the big increase in researchers to Australian institutions cultivating “home-grown” talent and recruiting highly cited individuals.

Australia’s fifth place is way ahead of Canada in sixth with 195 (3.1 per cent). But it is far behind the US in first place with 2650 researchers (41.5 per cent). China is second with 770 researchers (12.1 per cent), up from 636 (10.2 per cent in 2019).

Local heroes:  Curtin U was quick to praise the ten highly-cited researchers it can claim as its own, including three visitors. James Cook U was also fast to point out it has ten people listed, double last year.

Australian-based HiCi researchers by discipline :* ag sci: nine * biology: four * chemistry: eight * clinical medicine: 15 * computer science: 11 * cross-field: 123

* economics: one * engineering: 15 * environment: 16 * geoscience: five * immunology: 15 * materials science:  seven *maths:  seven *microbiology: two * molecular biology: four

* neuroscience: six * pharmacology: eleven * physics: three * plant and animal science: 17 * psychiatry/psychology: 14 * social sciences: nine  and *space science: three