Australian research institutes continue to ‘punch above their weight’

Three senior George Institute researchers have once again been recognised for their work as part of a strong contingent of Australians in the global list of most highly cited, released this week.

Executive Director Professor Bruce Neal, Professorial Fellow and Dean of Medicine, UNSW Professor Vlado Perkovic and Senior Professorial Fellow Mark Woodward were all included in the 2020 Highly Cited Researchers by leading global insights and analytics company Clarivate.

The highly anticipated annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top one percent by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science™ citation index. 

Professor Bruce Neal said it was a testament to the work of The George Institute that its research continues to have significant global reach.

“Its very gratifying to be recognised in the most cited list again this year, as researchers we hope our work will make a difference so its good to see that this work continues to be referenced by our peers,” he said.

According to Clarivate, Australian research institutes continue to punch above their weight with a total of 305 researchers recognized in 2020 out of a population of just 25 million.

They also commented that Australian research institutions appeared to have recruited a significant number of Highly Cited Researchers in recent years while also increasing their number of homegrown talent. 

David Pendlebury, Senior Citation Analyst at the Institute for Scientific Information, said: “In the race for knowledge, it is human capital that is fundamental and this list identifies and celebrates exceptional individual researchers who are having a great impact on the research community as measured by the rate at which their work is being cited by others.”