The University of São Paulo has 247 researchers in the Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators, a list that classifies the most influential scientists in the world in their respective areas of expertise.

Released on October 10, 2022 by Elsevier, the study is prepared annually by researchers from Stanford University (USA) and analyzes the influence of scientists based on Scopus - the world's largest database of abstracts and citations of reviewed scientific publications by peers – based on the calculation of an indicator composed of citations (c-score), capable of portraying in a more comprehensive way the impact of each scientist's work.

Scientists are classified into 22 areas of knowledge and 176 subareas.

The final selection includes the 100,000 scientists with the highest c-score and also the 100,000 scientists who have published at least five articles in scientific publications of worldwide impact and who are among the top 2% in their subfield of research. The results are presented in two categories: Impact in 2021 and Impact throughout career. The 2021 list is made up of a total of 200,409 scientists.

Most Influential Scientists in 2021

In the Impact category in 2021, 1,212 Brazilian researchers were classified, 247 from USP, the institution with the highest number of scientists on the list. Unicamp had 87 researchers mentioned and Unesp, 66.

Last year, USP had 230 researchers classified and, in 2020, there were 158. Click here and access the complete list, by area, of the 247 most influential researchers at USP in 2021.

Methodology

The methodology used to prepare the Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators was developed by researchers at Stanford University, in 2016, based on the calculation of the indicator composed of citations (c-score).

The composite index of citations is calculated based on six parameters: total number of citations, excluding self-citations, received in the previous year; H-index; adjusted Schreiber co-authorship index; number of citations received in works whose researcher is a single author; number of citations received in works whose researcher is the sole author or first author; and number of citations received in works whose researcher is the only author, first author or last author.

The final selection comprises the top 100,000 scientists by c-score, plus the 100,000 scientists ranked in the top-2% c-score for each subarea of knowledge.