Stanford University has updated its list of leading researchers with data from the year 2022. The URV ranks third in Spain and Catalonia in terms of the percentage of researchers among the permanent teaching and research staff

The number of citations an article has is an indicator of the impact that a particular research project has on the scientific community. Researchers use previous studies to advance their own work, which is in turn used by professionals to build new knowledge. The influence and the impact of research is determined by the number of citations accumulated. This is precisely why the database of top-cited scientists has been updated, using standardized citation indicators published by Stanford University. These lists include research staff from the URV, which ranks as the third university in Spain and Catalonia with the highest proportion of influential researchers among the permanent teaching and research staff.

The report makes a double analysis: it focuses not only on the activity of the previous year (citations received in 2022) but also on data from the researchers’ whole academic career (citations received up to and including 2022). The first analysis includes 210,198 researchers, 41 of whom are from the URV; the second includes 204,643 researchers, of whom 38 are from the URV. In both scenarios, the University is ranked as the third in Spain in terms of the influence of its researchers, an improvement on the figures of the previous report, in which it was in fourth position. In total, 54 researchers from the URV appear in the rankings and, of these, 25 appear in both the list of influential researchers in the last year and in the calculation of the whole career.

A slight deviation in the age of the research staff can be observed between the two lists. While the average age of the most influential URV researchers in the last year is 53.3 years, the average age over the whole career is 57.6 years.

To determine the indices, the number of URV researchers listed has been calculated and standardised in terms of the number of permanent teaching and research staff working at the University. To prepare this database, among other factors Stanford University takes into account the order in which researchers sign the articles, and also the citations that the authors make of their own research. Each factor has a particular weight, and the sum of all the factors leads to a reference value, which ranks researchers in terms of their impact, for both the last year and their whole academic career.

The URV is ranked not only as the third university in Spain, but also as the third university in Catalonia. This means that the Spanish universities with the highest rates of influential researchers are in Catalonia. In terms of the activity of the last year, the first seven are Catalan and, in terms of the whole career, the first six are.