Highly Cited Researchers:
Key trends 2014-2024

This year we celebrate the centenary of Eugene Garfield, the founder of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and pioneer of bibliometrics and information science.

To mark this occasion, ISI is proud to present an interactive visualization of key trends in the annual Highly Cited Researchers list over the last decade (2014-2024). The list was first published in 2001 by Garfield’s team and over time has become one of the most influential recognition programs in academia.

Over this period, there have been several milestones in the evolution of the Highly Cited Researchers methodology – outlined on the timeline – which are essential to understanding our retrospective analysis.

Key insights from a decade of data

Here are some key insights about the Highly Cited Researchers who were named to the list from 2014-2024 which can be found through our new interactive visualization below.

• U.S. leads overall: U.S.-based researchers dominate with 24,973 awards, far ahead of Mainland China (7,340) and the U.K. (5,070). The U.S. leads in all fields except Engineering and Material Science, where Mainland China takes the lead. (Figure 1)
• Shifting trends: U.S. awards are declining — from 1,701 in 2014 to 1,367 in 2024 — while Mainland China’s numbers surged from 122 to 576 over the same period across all 21 ESI fields. (Figure 3)
• Hong Kong’s SAR’s rise: Hong Kong SAR climbed from 18th in 2014 to 11th in 2024 overall, and from 19th to 7th in Cross-Field between 2018 and 2024. (Figure 3)
• Efficiency leaders: Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, the U.S., and The Netherlands rank highest in awards per 10k researchers in 2024, showing strong per capita performance. (Figure 4)
• U.K. and Europe: The U.K. leads Europe across all fields, especially in Neuroscience & Behavior (14%), Space Science (12%), Computer Science (11%), and Clinical Medicine (10%). However, it shows declines in Agricultural Sciences, Biology & Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Genetics, Materials Science, and Physics. (Figure 3)