August 2026 data-update for "Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators"
Description
Citation metrics are widely used and misused. We have created a publicly available database of top-cited scientists that provides standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions and a composite indicator (c-score). Separate data are shown for career-long and single recent year impact. Metrics with and without self-citations, ratio of citations to citing papers, retracted papers (based on Retraction Watch database) and citations to/from retracted papers are also shown to facilitate mapping of potential research integrity issues. Scientists are classified into 20 scientific fields and 174 sub-fields (Science-Metrix classification). Field- and subfield-specific percentiles are also provided for all scientists with at least 5 papers. Career-long data are updated to end-of-2025 and single recent year data pertain to citations received during calendar year 2025. The selection is based on the top 100,000 scientists by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above in the sub-field. This version (9) is based on the August 1, 2026 snapshot from Scopus, updated to end of citation year 2025. Calculations were performed using all Scopus author profiles as of August 1, 2026. The c-score focuses on impact (citations) rather than productivity (number of publications) and it also incorporates information on co-authorship and author positions (single, first, last author). We make the data publicly available to facilitate transparency and research, but some websites that disseminate the data may interpret them in misleading ways, e.g. as absolute evidence of excellence. If an author is not on the list, it is simply because the composite indicator value was not high enough to appear on the list. It does not mean that the author does not do good work. PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT THE DATABASE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED IN AN ARCHIVAL FORM AND WILL NOT BE CHANGED. The published version reflects Scopus author profiles at the time of calculation. We advise authors to ensure that their Scopus profiles are accurate. REQUESTS FOR CORRECTIONS OF SCOPUS DATA (INCLUDING CORRECTIONS IN AFFILIATIONS) SHOULD NOT BE SENT TO US. Instead, please sign in using the Scopus Author Feedback Wizard to submit such requests so that correct data can be used in future annual updates of the citation indicator databases. For any additional questions, see attached file on FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS. All citation metrics have limitations and their use should be tempered and judicious, e.g. see the Leiden manifesto: https://www.nature.com/articles/520429a
Files
Steps to reproduce
The full code can be found in previous versions of this dataset.
Institutions
- Stanford UniversityCA, Stanford
Departments
Categories
Additional metadata for Elsevier datasets
| Date the data was collected | 2026-07-31T22:00:00.000Z |