Highly Cited Researchers program

Clarivate's Highly Cited Researchers program measures the amount of citations in Web of Science–indexed journals a paper or article has amassed, and honors certain top authors as a "Highly Cited Researcher" (HCR). Within the scientific community, Highly Cited Researchers are found as only 1 in every 1,000 scientists.

History
The list has been published yearly since 2001.

In 2016, Clarivate sent a congratulatory email to many researchers who had not actually received the designation. It was not disclosed how many researchers the congratulations were erroneously sent to.

Over 1,000 researchers were excluded from the 2023 list in total, largely for unethical citation practices and other examples of poor academic integrity. Specifically, researchers affiliated with Saudi Arabian universities saw a sharp decline from the previous years' rankings in 2023. In April 2023, El País revealed that Saudi universities had been paying researchers to add their institution as an affiliation. After correction, the number of HCRs affiliated with Saudi institutions dropped by 30%. Following the incident, Clarivate released a statement supporting integrity in researcher affiliations.

Trend analysis
From 2001 to 2016, the percentage of HCRs affiliated with institutions from mainland China increased, reflecting the increased spending on research conducted by Chinese colleges and universities, though during this time, the amount of affiliations specifically to the Chinese Academy of Sciences decreased.

The proportion of women in the HCR list has been studied, with results suggesting that research by women receives less citations, as they represented only 16% of the researchers on the list. Research has also shown that in the fields of chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, and physics and astronomy, where the biggest disparity occurs, women constitute 4–7% of the HCRs although they make up over 25% of authors in the field. (For further information, see: Women in STEM fields and Sexism in academia)

Methodology
As of their 2022 list, Clarivate uses "performance statistics" from data in the Web of Science. There are 21 specific fields, and one for interdisciplinary science—Clarivate creates a list of papers that are in the top 1% most highly cited in their field, and admission to the HCR list is based on an author's number of papers in the top 1%.

The resulting list of highly cited researchers can be manipulated by citation cartels. After it was found that obscure researchers had displaced eminent mathematicians in the list, Clarivate had to remove the whole field of mathematics from the list in 2023.

Prestige
Many institutions post a press release, blog post, or news story upon a faculty member being recognized in the program.

Usage
The list of HCRs has been used to create a specific list of authoritative researchers; one study specifically used HCRs to show trends of retractions in Iran.

As of 2019, the list is also used as a factor in determining the rank of a college in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, which uses the amount of affiliated HCRs in its ranking criteria.