List of highly cited researchers: For the first time, no one from Vietnam

Clarivate has just announced its annual list of Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) 2024, in which for the first time there is no one from Vietnam.

Clarivate's global research report, “Research Integrity: Understanding Our Shared Responsibility for a Sustainable Academic Ecosystem,” calls on all scientific stakeholders to share responsibility for ensuring research integrity - Screenshot

The HCR list, which first appeared in 2014, includes researchers whose papers have been in the top 1% of most cited papers over the previous 10 years.

This year's HCR list includes around 6,600 people, representing one-thousandth of the total global researchers.

The highly cited researchers work in 59 countries, but 85.4% are concentrated in 10 countries, and 74.4% are located in 5 countries. This shows a very high concentration of influential researchers in a few scientifically advanced countries.

Over the past 10 years, there have been 1 to 6 people with Vietnamese addresses listed on the HCR list each year. Last year, there were 4 people with Vietnamese addresses. However, this year, there are no more people from Vietnam on the list.

The race between America and China

The United States remains the leader in this year’s HCR list with 2,507 researchers, accounting for 36.4% of the global total. China is right behind with 1,405, accounting for 20.4%. Thus, these two countries alone have 57% of the total number of highly cited researchers.

China is rapidly closing the gap with the US. Its share of highly cited researchers has risen sharply from 7.9% in 2018 to 20.4% this year, an increase of 12.5% ​​in six years.

In contrast, the US share has fallen significantly, from 43.3% in 2018 to 36.4% this year, a loss of 6.9% over the same period as China's rise. Compared to 2023, China's share has increased by 2.5%, while the US's has fallen by 1.1% in just one year.

Following the US and China in the HCR 2024 list are the UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, France and Singapore, respectively.

At the research unit level, among the world's top 50 units, the US still accounts for the largest number, nearly half, with 24 units; followed by China with 7 units, then the UK (6), Australia (3), Hong Kong (2), Singapore (2); the rest are Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Israel and the Netherlands, each with 1 unit.

Topping the list is the Chinese Academy of Sciences with 308 highly cited authors, followed by Harvard University with 231, followed by Stanford University (133), Tsinghua University, the US National Institutes of Health, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Oxford University, University College London (UCL), the Max Planck Society (Germany), the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Hong Kong.

More than 2,000 researchers eliminated

According to Clarivate, trust in research is at great risk, and scientific measurement data is easily distorted. Therefore, Clarivate is constantly refining its evaluation and selection criteria for the HCR list in response to the challenge of increasing complexity and pollution of the scholarly literature.

With Clarivate's commitment to research integrity, the HCR review and selection process is constantly evolving to screen out hyper-productive authors, authors who publish too many papers in a row over a long period of time, authors who self-cite too much, authors with unusual citation patterns, small groups of researchers who cite each other back and forth, and other concerning behaviors.

All retracted papers, no matter how highly cited, were not used in the review; and individuals who had been formally found guilty of research misconduct were removed from this year's list.

Clarivate analysts have implemented additional screening tools to detect and investigate unusual publishing and citation behavior. As a result of increased and tightened integrity standards, hundreds to thousands of candidates have failed to pass the screening process.

Specifically, the number of candidates removed from the HCR list due to integrity concerns has skyrocketed from about 300 in 2021 to 500 in 2022, then doubled to 1,000 in 2023, and continued to double this year, to more than 2,000 people removed.

With 6,600 researchers on the HCR 2024 list, the number of rejections exceeding 2,000 is staggering, as it means that 1 in 3 shortlisted researchers were rejected due to integrity concerns. According to Clarivate, this highlights the need for effective qualitative assessment methods in addition to quantitative analysis of scientific publications.

Prevent address fraud

Before publishing the HCR list, Clarivate asks candidates to confirm their work address to ensure the data is accurate and up to date. However, many candidates are willing to falsify their address when organizations looking to move up the rankings pay them to appear on the HCR list.

For this year’s list, Clarivate applied clearer criteria for the primary workplace. Specifically, it is the place where the researcher actually works and does the majority of the work, and where the researcher has a permanent or contracted position.

Addresses where researchers work, have contracts or are appointed on an honorary or temporary basis are not counted. Where necessary, Clarivate asks institutions to confirm the researcher's work address.

This reinforces Clarivate's commitment to maintaining the transparency and credibility of the address associated with each researcher on the HCR list, and has a significant impact on the rankings of institutions in rankings that use this list as a criterion for evaluation.

Clarivate also calls on the community to protect scientific integrity through rigorous peer review and other internationally recognized practices to maintain the integrity of scientific research and publication. At the same time, the company will continue to improve its methods to enhance the reliability and integrity of the HCR list in the coming years.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/danh-sach-nha-nghien-cuu-duoc-trich-dan-nhieu-lan-dau-vang-bong-nguoi-tu-viet-nam-20241123074943098.htm