FAQs

Our Highly Cited Researchers program identifies and celebrates individuals who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their field(s) of research.

Our 2025 list names 6,868 individuals and we have designated 7,131 Highly Cited Researcher awards in total: 3,562 Highly Cited Researchers in 21 fields of the sciences and social sciences and 3,569 individuals identified as having exceptional performance across several fields named to the cross-field category.  Some researchers have been recognized in more than one field of research, resulting in more designations than individual awardees.

For deeper insight into the list – the researchers, their fields of research, institutions and home countries or regions – please read our 2025 analysis.

As the need for high-quality data from rigorously selected sources is becoming ever more important, the Institute for Scientific Information selects researchers through a meticulous evaluation process as we seek to highlight both significant and broad influence.

Please take careful note of our detailed evaluation and selection guidance which clearly outlines our process, to fully understand how the final list has been compiled. We also recommend you read our Disclaimer section to understand the limitations of any analytical approach.

This year, we issued 7,131 awards to 6,868 individuals. The number of awards exceeds the number of unique individuals because some researchers have been recognized in more than one field of research. Our analysis of countries/regions and institutions counts designated awards and is thus based on the total of 7,131.

Each year we are contacted by many individuals and their representatives to request that we review their personal publication and citation data. We cannot respond to requests to review cases sent to us or share thresholds for inclusion in each field of research.

Please take careful note of our detailed evaluation and selection guidance which clearly outlines our process, to fully understand how the final list has been compiled.

The selection of Highly Cited Researchers is not based solely on the number of Highly Cited Papers from ESI; other criteria are also considered in the final selection. It is possible for a researcher with a higher number of Highly Cited Papers or citations than named HCRs in the same category not to appear on the list. In other words, comparing publication and citation counts in isolation from other criteria is not a reliable way of determining who ‘should’ be included.

It is not unusual for researchers of this caliber to have affiliations with several different research organizations. Due to this complexity and high levels of mobility for many researchers, Clarivate asks Highly Cited Researchers to verify their affiliations to us each year prior to launch.

Our published list then reflects the information available from the scholarly record (i.e. the contact details on their Highly Cited Papers across an eleven-year window), combined with any requested updates from the researchers themselves, subject to verification of the update. This program does not currently use affiliations from Web of Science Author Profiles.

Clarivate prioritizes accuracy and transparency in researchers’ claims of primary and secondary affiliations. Many of the individuals named to our list have genuine, complex research affiliations, so we ask them to help verify their primary affiliation to us.

For this program a primary affiliation is defined as the researcher’s home institution – typically at a location where they reside, hold a primary position, and for whom they conduct the majority of their work (as reflected in their recent publication record).

A Research Fellowship is not usually recognized as a primary affiliation. In 2024 we introduced, and in 2025 further enhanced, additional affiliation checks for complex cases to ensure accuracy. This often requires confirmation from contacts at the institutions named in a researcher’s recent publication record.

Clarivate welcomed affiliation and name correction requests from identified Highly Cited Researchers from September 17 to October 3 2025. We will continue to accept affiliation and name correction requests up to December 8 2025, and we will update this website at the end of December.

Please do inform us if the information we have captured for you is out-of-date, so we can update our records.

We remind researchers that it is essential to specify their correct home institution as their primary affiliation. (See: Are there clear guidelines for defining a primary affiliation?)

In complex cases, we may contact an institution listed in your recent publication record, to ensure the accuracy of our list.

To submit an update for this program, please follow this guidance carefully:

• Email ISI@clarivate.com using your primary institutional email address. Provide your name, as you would like it to appear, and identify one primary affiliated research institution.
• You may also list any secondary affiliations, if relevant. Add your email address associated with any secondary institutions into the cc line of your email.
• If available, include a public-facing online link to your current institution’s website that confirms your affiliation.
• Please include this copy: I agree to the processing of my personal information for publication in the Highly Cited Researchers list.

Following these steps will help ensure that our list is updated accurately and efficiently.

[Refer to the Clarivate Privacy Notice for more information.]

We greatly appreciate the support of research institutions in ensuring the accuracy of our list. We encourage you to share your findings with us and inform the researcher(s) involved. Before implementing any changes to our records, we require each researcher’s personal authorization via email. (See: I have been named to the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list and I would like to correct the name of the affiliated institution you have published for me.)

Each year, Clarivate compiles a new, dynamic Highly Cited Researchers list, based on a rolling eleven-year citation analysis window. As our evaluation and selection policies evolve to respond to changes in the publishing landscape, new names enter the list each year and inclusion in consecutive years is in no way guaranteed. Since there is no policy of continuation, a researcher who does not meet the criteria in any given year is not considered to be ‘removed’.

For any concerns regarding your Web of Science Profile / ResearcherID, please contact our customer care team. However, be assured that these profiles do not impact our selection process.

Please do read our evaluation and selection criteria carefully to fully understand how the list is compiled.  We approach this task using both quantitative and qualitative indicators, but we begin with Essential Science Indicators to identify Highly Cited Papers and use the associated metadata to create author sets – independent of your Web of Science Profile information.

Researchers with cross-field impact are those who might contribute multiple highly cited papers in several different fields, but do not register enough Highly Cited Papers in any single ESI field of research to be considered for selection.

The recognition of these researchers keeps our list contemporary and relevant. It tends to capture younger researchers and those who work at the intersection of different scientific or scholarly domains, underscoring the importance of interdisciplinary research.

We do not count Highly Cited Papers that have been retracted from the Web of Science when creating our list of candidates. In 2022 we expanded our ability to qualitatively review award selection by leveraging Retraction Watch and its unparalleled database of retractions. We refrain from selecting for an award when there is evidence of a potential candidate’s publications being retracted for reasons of misconduct (such as plagiarism, image manipulation and fake peer review).

The Web of Science platform includes a Highly Cited Researcher badge and quick filter to help users locate influential experts.

Using the Researchers search tab, users can search by author name, identifier, or affiliated organization. When browsing profiles, the HCR quick filter refines results to highlight awardees. Researchers recognized by this program since 2014, who have claimed their Web of Science Researcher Profile, will appear in these filtered results, marked by an HCR badge.

Please note that it may take a few days for 2025 data to be reflected in the quick filter, following publication of the list.

You can download your personal certificate via the ‘Claim profile’ link next to your name on the 2025 list. It is free to access and does not rely on a Web of Science subscription. Please note it may take up to 48 hours for certificates to become available, following the publication of the 2025 list.

While the list reflects significant diversity in terms of geography, nationality and even age since the addition of the cross-field category, we acknowledge that the list itself is very male-heavy. This imbalance mirrors the systemic biases inherent in the scholarly communication system.

We do not gather gender information alongside author name and affiliation from our researchers during the program validation process, nor do we make assumptions about a researcher’s gender, based on their first name. We are careful not to presume how any individual researcher chooses to self-identify.

We continue to emphasize the importance of using our metrics in a responsible setting, which is especially relevant in researcher evaluation. The Web of Science serves as a useful tool for uncovering the extent and nuances of these biases across regions and disciplines and can assist policymakers in tracking the effectiveness of policy changes designed to address systemic biases.

This year we are reintroducing the Mathematics category after an absence of two years. There are 60 researchers named in Mathematics in 2025. This field of study, more than others, is susceptible to citation manipulation and gaming since it is highly fractionated in terms of topics and exhibits relatively low rates of citation. Even a modest concentration of co-authorships and citation by a network of colleagues can artificially obscure truly influential papers and people who should otherwise receive recognition. To address this issue, analysts at the Institute for Scientific Information screened the Highly Cited Papers in Mathematics in advance of our analysis to filter out those which would otherwise have distorted the results.

Our review of those selected in 2025 reveals a broader representation of fields, more individuals from recognized leading institutions, and many world-class researchers who have earned top honors in this field.

To ensure correct attribution of Highly Cited Papers to authors, we use a combination of algorithmic disambiguation of author information and manual expert review. Our team reviews author identifiers, emails, research topics, journal sources, institutional addresses and co-authorships. Usually this is sufficient to distinguish unique individuals.

Occasionally we examine original papers for full names (as some journals only publish initials) and may reference author websites or C.V.s to resolve any remaining questions, particularly when frequent affiliation moves are involved.

Our global external communications team provides a toolkit of materials to assist with the promotion of the achievements of the researchers at your institution. Please contact them directly with your request at: newsroom@clarivate.com

Our external communications team would be happy to assist with any media inquiries. Please contact them at: newsroom@clarivate.com