A new study by researchers at Stanford University in the US explores the impact of the world’s 100,000 top scientists across all scientific fields. According to the study, Professor of Internal Medicine Markku Laakso from the University of Eastern Finland has the greatest career-long impact among all Finnish scientists. Ranked 429th for his career-long impact, Professor Laakso belongs in the top 0.01% of scientists. Other University of Eastern Finland scientists to be included in the top 5,000 for their career-long impact are Professor Emeritus Kalevi Pyörälä (ranked 2982nd) and Academy Professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala (ranked 3457th). The study was published in PLOS Biology.
According to the Stanford University scientists, citation metrics are widely used and misused. The publicly available database they have created is an effort allowing for a more transparent, more comparable, and less error-prone approach to citation metrics. All in all, the database contains 100,000 top scientists across all scientific fields. The database provides standardised information on, for example, citations, h-index, co-authorship and citations to papers in different authorship positions. Separate data are provided for single-year (2017) and career-long impact. For the latter, the scientists used Scopus citation data over 22 years (from 1996 to 2017). For papers published from 1960 until 1995, the citations received in 1996–2017 are also included in the calculations, providing a measure of long-term performance, and for most living, active scientists, reflecting their career-long impact.
Professor of Internal Medicine Markku Laakso is one of the world leaders in research into the genetics of type 2 diabetes. Laakso’s research uses several different approaches to study the underlying genetic factors of type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. He leads research into metabolic diseases within the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases research area, which is one of the strategic, top-level international research areas of the University of Eastern Finland. Laakso has served two terms as an Academy Professor, and his research group constitutes part of the Centre of Excellence in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease of the Academy of Finland.
For further information, please contact:
Professor Markku Laakso, tel. +358 40 672 3338, markku.laakso(at)uef.fi
Original article:
Ioannidis JPA, Baas J, Klavans R, Boyack KW (2019). A standardized citation metrics author database annotated for scientific field. PLoS Biol 17(8): e3000384. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000384
Available for download as an Open Access article at:
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000384