According to Mehr reporter, in recent days, the list of “Most Cited Researchers” in the world in 2025 was published by Clarivit Analytics Institute (former ISI). This list has been published annually since 2014 and introduces researchers who have had a significant and widespread impact in their research fields.
In the latest list of highly cited researchers; 6 thousand 868 people have been introduced in different scientific fields.
The following table shows the number of highly cited researchers in different scientific fields. Some people in several different scientific fields have been introduced as highly cited researchers.
This year’s highly cited researchers are from 60 different countries and regions. However, 86.1% of them belong to only 10 countries and regions, and 74.6% of them are concentrated in only 5 countries.
With 2,670 highly cited researchers in 2025, America has the highest number of highly cited researchers in the world. This figure is equivalent to 37.4% of all the most cited researchers in the world.
America’s share of the world’s most cited researchers in 2025 has increased slightly by one percent. Previously, in the past years, the share of highly cited researchers in the United States was decreasing.
China has maintained its second place this year with 1406 highly cited researchers (19.7% of the world). This represents a small increase in the number of researchers in the world, but a slight decrease of 0.7% in the global share compared to 2024, which was 20.4%. Previously, China’s global share of highly cited researchers was steadily increasing, and China has been able to more than double its share of the population of highly cited researchers since 2018.
With 570 highly cited researchers (8% of the world’s most cited researchers), England is again ranked third this year, followed by Germany (363), Australia (312), Canada (227), the Netherlands (194), Hong Kong (145), Switzerland (130) and France (121). Switzerland is back in the top 10 this year, while Singapore, which was ranked 10th last year, has fallen from this ranking. Also, France has been promoted from ninth to tenth place.
Among the world’s scientific institutions, in 2025, the Chinese Academy of Sciences will rank first with 258 highly cited researchers, followed by Harvard University (170), Stanford University (141), and Tsinghua University (91). Among the other universities in the top 10, MIT (ranked 85) moved up from 6th last year to 5th and replaced the US National Institutes of Health (84). The University of Oxford (59), University College London (59), the University of Pennsylvania (59) and the Max Planck Society still rank high. The Max Planck Institute has increased in terms of the number of highly cited researchers (from 56 researchers in 2024 to 66 researchers) and has reached the 9th to 7th rank.
The number of highly cited researchers in Iran remained 3
In 1400, Iran had the largest number of highly cited researchers, and in the last 4 years, this amount has decreased by more than 80%. Last year, the number of Iran’s most cited researchers reached the lowest number since the beginning of the list (2014), and this year, Iran’s most cited researchers remained three.
Mehdi Dehghan in the field of mathematics (Professor of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of Amirkabir University of Technology), Mohammad Ali Mansoornia in the field of social sciences (Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics of Tehran University of Medical Sciences) and Majid Soltani in the field of interdisciplinary field (Associate Professor of Bio-Energy Conversion Department of Khwaja Nasiruddin Tousi University of Technology) are the only highly cited researchers of Iran in this prestigious list.
In the list of most cited researchers in 2025, Saudi Arabia has 30 highly cited researchers and Türkiye has 2 highly cited researchers.
There are many references about highly cited Saudi researchers. Between 2014 and 2022, the number of people who were in the list of highly cited researchers with Saudi organizational affiliation increased from 29 people to 109 people, but since two years ago, the trend of these researchers in Saudi Arabia has also decreased.
Saudi Arabia has sought to attract the best researchers in the world for more than a decade. This country invites top researchers to work in its institutions and hold courses in these institutions, spend study opportunities, teach as visiting professors, and in return, Saudi Arabia provides them with financial and laboratory facilities. It is also said that Saudi Arabia offers very high amounts of money to hire these researchers.
Following the protest of the universities and the reports published by the world’s authoritative media about the recruitment of researchers from other countries by Saudi Arabia, Clarivit Institute, by changing its evaluation method, introduces people who work in a university in a real way and without manipulating their organizational affiliation in the final list of highly cited researchers. Accordingly, it seems that the decrease in the number of highly cited researchers in Saudi Arabia has occurred as a result of these changes.
Removal of 2,400 candidates to maintain the validity of the list of highly cited researchers
Trust in scientific research has faced serious challenges in recent years, and the quality of data and the credibility of highly cited researchers have become more important. The Clarivit Institute has revised its criteria and policies for the preparation of the annual list of highly cited researchers, taking into account technological advances and changes in scientific publishing, so that accurate identification of genuine researchers is possible.
Accordingly, some key measures have been taken, including removing articles with more than 30 authors or articles published by people with known scientific misconduct. Also, by removing unusual citation networks, the branch of mathematics has returned to the list of highly cited researchers and the diversity of real researchers has increased. Algorithmic and human analysis have also been used for the investigations.
Accordingly, to prepare this list of authors with a lot of articles, people who have strong self-citation and excessive citation of close colleagues; have been deleted And as a result of these reforms, about 2,400 people were removed from those who were on the list of candidates for the most cited researchers this year. In 2022, as a result of the reviews, 500 people were removed from this list, and this process has reached the removal of more than 2000 people in 2024. These changes emphasize that accurate and qualitative evaluation of research is necessary along with quantitative data, and the scientific community must maintain the integrity and honesty of research through peer review and adherence to international standards.
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