At the Top with Ten Highly Cited Researchers

Heidelberg University is the most successful university Germany-wide on the list of highly cited researchers, that has just appeared. With ten researchers it is in second place in Germany after the Max Planck Society. This international evaluation names researchers whose publications have been quoted most often worldwide in the natural sciences, social sciences or medicine. University President Prof. Dr Bernhard Eitel underlines that “Heidelberg is not just excellently placed among German universities”. The fact that ten Heidelberg researchers – two more than last year – are among the “highly cited researchers” reflects an overall excellent research achievement of Heidelberg as a research location according to the University's President.

Among the most cited researchers in his field is Prof. Dr Ralf Bartenschlager (Microbiology), who is on the list for the fourth successive time. Likewise quoted for the third successive time is Prof. Dr. A. Stephen K Hashmi (Chemistry), Prof. Dr Hugo A. Katus (Medicine), Prof. Dr. Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg (Neuro and Behavioural Sciences) and Prof. Dr. Volker Springel (Astronomy), who works at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies and also has a professorship at Heidelberg University. Like last year, PD Dr Volker Lohmann (Microbiology) and Prof. Dr Andreas von Deimling (Neuro and Behavioural Sciences) are among the researchers with the most citations. Newcomers on the list for Heidelberg University are Stephanie Kallis (Microbiology), Prof. Dr Marcella Rietschel (Psychiatry/Psychology) and Prof. Dr Karin Schumacher (Developmental Biology).

The frequency of citation measures how often a published article is quoted in the publications of colleagues. It is thus an important indication of the scientific influence of a publication. Publications from 2004 to 2014 were counted for the current list of highly cited researchers, issued by Clarivate Analytics, formerly the Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters. In the web of science, in the respective discipline and in a specific year, they number among the "top 1 percent" of the most cited articles. The list has existed since 2001. In 2014 it was revised for the first time and has been published annually since then. It covers about 3,000 researchers from 22 scientific fields.