Recently, Thomson Reuters and Elsevier released the list of "Highly Cited Scientists" and "Highly Cited Scholars in China" respectively. This paper analyzes the differences between them from three aspects: the orientation and thinking of periodical selection, database and standard, and the classification of listed disciplines.
(1) Thomson Reuters's citation laurel award and highly cited scientist
In order to highlight those researchers who are promoting cutting-edge scientific research, their affiliated institutions and countries, support researchers to promote scientific research innovation on a global scale, and pay tribute to those researchers who have made unremitting efforts for scientific progress and social development, Thomson Reuters conducts quantitative analysis based on the data of its authoritative citation database Web of ScienceTM core collection every year to determine the most influential researchers in the disciplines that won the Nobel Prize (namely, medicine, physics, chemistry and economics). These influential researchers were awarded the prize by Thomson Reuters. At the same time, it is also predicted to be the most likely Nobel Prize winner this year or in the near future. By the end of 20 15, Thomson Reuters had successfully predicted 39 Nobel Prize winners. Thomson Reuters's citation laurel award is regarded as the "weather vane" for predicting the Nobel Prize by academic circles.
Based on the citation laurel award, Thomson Reuters publishes the report "The Most Influential Scientific Research Elite in the World" every year. On 20/0/5 this year, nearly 3,000 "highly cited researchers" (HCR) from all over the world were released, of which 107 were from Chinese mainland. These selected scientists are influencing their respective scientific research fields and even the future development direction of the world. They are the best scientific research elites of our time. In other words, being selected into the list of "highly cited scientists" means that the scholar has world-class influence in his research field, and his scientific research achievements have made great contributions to the development of this field.
(2) "China Highly Cited Scholar" who cooperated with Elsevier's Best University Network.
With the increasing influence and status of China in the field of international scientific research, it is particularly important to commend outstanding scholars who lead academic progress. Elsevier and Best University Network * * *, using the methods and standards developed by Shanghai Soft Science Education Information Consulting Co., Ltd., based on objective reference data, systematically analyze the worldwide influence of China researchers; As a partner, Elsevier provided data support and technical realization for the list research. At the end of 20 16 65438+ 10, the latest list of most cited China researchers in China was released. The list of highly cited scholars in China was reviewed and updated according to the results of last year, and 1744 China scholars with the most world influence were presented to the academic circles and the public.
(1) database is different.
The basic data of Thomson Reuters's "highly cited scientists" comes from the authoritative database of Thomson Reuters Web of Science. Because citation analysis can't be directly compared across disciplines and generations, it is more authoritative to combine ESI highly cited papers, that is, high-impact papers in the same field and era.
As a partner of "China Highly Cited Scholars", Elsevier uses its Scopus database and literature data processing ability to provide data support and technical realization for the list research. The research data of China's list of highly cited scholars comes from Scopus database owned by Elsevier. Scopus is the largest index abstract database of peer-reviewed academic papers in the world, which provides a large number of documents, authors and research institutions related to scientific research activities, making it possible to scientifically analyze and evaluate the world influence of China scholars.
(2) Different selection methods and standards.
Thomson Reuters's selection of "highly cited scientists" is based on the confirmation of the number of "highly cited scientists" in various disciplines and the power law of Dr. Price (the father of scientometrics), that is, in the same discipline, half of the papers are written by a group of high-yield authors, and the number of this collection of authors is approximately equal to the square root of the total number of authors. At the same time, choosing highly cited papers refers to the papers with the highest cited frequency in the world 1% in that year.
China Highly Cited Scholars takes the calculation method of cumulative cited times as the basic means to select highly cited scholars in China, that is, taking the first author and correspondent as important authors, counting the cited times of papers published by a scholar as the first author and correspondent, regardless of the contributions of other authors.
Based on the world-leading Web of Science research platform and InCites research performance analysis platform, Thomson Reuters evaluated more than 654.38+02 million papers published in various disciplines from 2003 to 2065.438+03, and selected 65.438+007 researchers who published a large number of highly cited papers in 265.438+0 ESI disciplines.
According to Scopus's subject classification system, Elsevier counts the distribution of author's names in various disciplines, as shown in the following figure. The initial total number of places on the list of highly cited scholars in China is set at 2000. According to the proportion of the author's name in 42 disciplines, the initial quota of each discipline is calculated. Next, all the scholars are divided into the disciplines with the most published papers, and ranked together with other students' scholars according to the total number of citations. A corresponding number of scholars are reserved for each discipline according to the initial quota. For disciplines with an initial quota of less than 10, scholars with 10 are generally reserved. Finally, 744 highly cited scholars in China 1 5 years were screened out. See table1for the distribution of scholars in various disciplines.
Distribution and personnel
In the era of globalization and knowledge economy, the essence of international competition is the contest between scientific and technological strength and innovation ability. To enhance scientific and technological strength and innovation ability, education is the foundation and the key lies in talents. The quantitative evaluation method based on bibliometrics has shown its unique advantages and values because of its objectivity and high efficiency, and has been paid more and more attention.
It is worthy of recognition that scientists recognized by international peers have emerged in most disciplines in China. However, compared with the list of 65,438+065,438+065,438+0 scholars in Reuters in 2065,438+04, the number of scientists in 2065,438+05 did not increase, but in physics (minus 8), mathematics (minus 7), molecular biology and genetics (minus 65,000). Therefore, we should clearly see that the distribution of scholars in various disciplines is not balanced, mainly concentrated in science and engineering disciplines such as chemistry, materials and engineering, while humanities, social sciences and medical related disciplines still lack international top leaders.
Further combining with Elsevier's 20 15 list of "China Highly Cited Scholars", 4 1 disciplines except general engineering have increased in different degrees, and the disciplines with more growth are mainly concentrated in chemistry (growth 10), energy (growth 7), earth and planetary science (growth 7), physics and astronomy (growth 7).
There are differences in the development level of different disciplines in China. For some disciplines and some scholars, China is better than international recognition. However, with the strategy of speeding up the construction of a number of world-class universities and disciplines in China, international leading scholars in various disciplines are bound to become the trump card of discipline development.