From Facebook likes to profit margins, numbers are a key component of metrics. In academia, one common metric is the number of citations.

But measuring and interpreting citations in a standardized and accurate way has been fraught with difficulties.

In an attempt to address this, a research team lead by Stanford University health researcher John P. A. Ioannidis created a database published in PLOS Biology that provides standardized information for the 100,000 most-cited authors around the world.

Brock University is well represented in that list.

To the research team’s knowledge, there is no large-scale database that systematically ranks all of the most-cited scientists in each and every scientific field to a sufficient ranking depth. The researchers divided the 100,000 most-cited authors into five supplementary tables, with Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 being of particular interest to Brock.

Supplementary Table 1 tracks citations of the Top 100,000 authors from 1996 to 2017, which “provides a measure of long-term performance, and for most living, active scientists, this also reflects their career-long impact,” says the paper.

Fourteen Brock researchers made that list:

• Michael Ashton, Professor of Psychology
• Anthony Bogaert, Professor of Health Sciences
• Stefan M. Brudzynski, Emeritus Professor of Psychology
• Dirk De Clercq, Professor of Organizational Behaviour, HR Management, Ethics, and Entrepreneurship
• Martin Head, Professor of Earth Sciences
• Herbert Holland, Professor of Chemistry (deceased)
• Tomáš Hudlický, Professor of Chemistry and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Organic Synthesis and Biocatalysis
• Cheryl McCormick, Professor of Psychology
• Catherine Mondloch, Professor of Psychology
• Catherine Nash, Professor of Geography & Tourism Studies
• Georgii Nikonov, Professor of Chemistry
• Peter Rand (Biological Sciences, Emeritus)
• Sid Segalowitz, Professor of Psychology
• Teena Willoughby, Professor of Psychology

Supplementary Table 2 captures a moment in time: citations in 2017. There, the Brock list is even longer. Including those listed above, Supplementary Table 2 also includes:

• Stephen Anco, Professor of Mathematics
• Stephen Cheung, Professor of Kinesiology
• Andrea Doucet, Professor of Sociology and Canada Research Chair in Gender, Work, Care and Community
• Thomas Farrell, Professor of Applied Linguistics
• Maurice Feldman, Professor of Applied Disability Studies
• David Fennell, Professor of Geography & Tourism Studies
• Gordon Hodson, Professor of Psychology
• Ryan Plummer, Professor of Environmental Sustainability
• Martin Tammemagi, Professor of Health Sciences
• Lianxi Zhou, Professor of Marketing, International Business & Strategy

“Brock’s representation in the 100,000 most-cited authors database speaks volumes about our research intensiveness and impact,” says Brock Vice-President, Research Tim Kenyon. “This is a list that takes the complications of citation far more seriously than most such exercises. We are very proud of our researchers’ hard work and dedication to increase knowledge and innovation in their fields of study.”