The updated version of the list of the most cited scientists in the world includes eight researchers from the Federal Research Center "Krasnoyarsk Science Center SB RAS". The largest increase in comparison with the previous version of the rating list was recorded in the category of the most cited scientists of the last year, where the representation of Krasnoyarsk science increased from 4 to 9 people. The database and its description are published on the website Elsevier.

The list of the most cited scientists in the world was first published two years ago. One of its authors is John Ioannidis, a well-known specialist in the field of medical statistics, who is also one of the most cited scientists in the world (including his publications of this type). A few days ago, another update of this database was made. To compile it, the authors used data on more than eight million scientists around the world, extracted from the Scopus scientific publications database. All scientists were assigned to appropriate fields of science. In each field, 2% of the most cited scientists was identified. This formed the basis for the final rankings, each of them including approximately 160,000 scientists. One ranking includes scientists with the highest citation rates of their articles over the past 25 years, from 1996 to 2020, while the second one was made only by the number of citations for the past year, 2020.
Included in both lists, the most cited scientists over the past year and over the past 25 years, are employees of the L.V. Kirensky Institute of Physics SB RAS Sergei Ovchinnikov* and Andrei Kolovsky, from the Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technology SB RAS, Leonid Soloviev, and from the Siberian Federal University, Evgeny Vaganov.

The list of the most cited scientists over the past year also includes employees of the L.V. Kirensky Institute of Physics SB RAS, Maxim Molokeev and Evgeny Bulgakov, from the Institute of Biophysics SB RAS, Tatyana Volova, from the Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technology SB RAS, Yuri Mikhlin and from the V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, Alexander Kirdyanov.

In total, 847 Russian scientists are included in the list of the most cited researchers over the past 25 years, and 956 Russian scientists are included in the list of the most cited researchers over the past year.

The use of such a scientometric indicator as the number of citations of scientific articles of the author, and its derivatives, in particular the Hirsch Index, has become one of the tools for a quick assessment of the level of a scientist. The scientometric approach without the use of expert judgment is often criticized. Indeed, citations of articles alone cannot fully characterize the efficiency of a scientist. Modern science is becoming more interdisciplinary and international. The authors of highly cited articles are often part of teams of dozens of co-authors, and the contribution of each of them to a specific work may differ. However, numerous studies on large data sets show good correlations between the number of citations and the recognition of a scientist, his administrative or scientific influence.

Of course, any scientometric indicators (the number of articles, the number of references to these articles, the level of the journals in which these articles are published) are not a guarantee of recognition. However, a researcher whose indicators are extremely low and/or they do not change over time can hardly be considered an active scientist involved in the scientific community.

“The advantage of this database is that it is compiled not just by ranking scientists by the number of references to their articles, but taking into account the peculiarities of the fields of science, the number of self-citations, and other scientometric indicators. For example, if one works in a narrow area with a small number of researchers involved and there is on average a low level of citations in this field of science, he can get into the rating with lower indicators than a representative of a promoted field. Such a base is primarily a tool for studying the features of the science development.

At the same time, we are pleased that Krasnoyarsk scientists are among the most cited scientists in the world. First, it suggests that our colleagues are involved in significant and globally recognized research. The almost two-fold increase in the representation in the list of the most cited scientists of the last year suggests that science in Krasnoyarsk is on the rise. We can see in the list not only prominent Krasnoyarsk scientists with positions and awards, but also relatively new names of young scientists. This is a very good tendency, which, hopefully, will develop in the coming years,” emphasized Yegor Zadereev, head of the scientific communications group of the Federal Research Center “KSC SB RAS”.

* For all Krasnoyarsk researchers, the place of work is indicated according to the one presented in the rating. Most of the mentioned scientists, in addition to their main job, may have part-time jobs in other scientific or educational institutions of Krasnoyarsk.