Citations Data for ICTP Scientists

 
Preamble

I have sometimes been asked about the most important pieces of science that have emerged from ICTP. Some of it has earned considerable recognition, but the task of answering the question becomes somewhat detailed. To help me in this task, I had asked, at one time, the heads of each scientific section for a brief account of the best work in their sections, but the answers varied from a list of the best paper of each scientist in that section to something like "time will tell". I have used that information appropriately on occasion, but it also seemed useful to construct a list of the better-known papers of our scientists in their own areas of specialization, to which I can refer if and when needed.

To this end, our library staff has kindly generated a list of papers that have been cited more than a certain number of times, 50 being the cut-off chosen. The number 50 is relatively small so that most of us do make the cut, but is large enough that not every paper authored by us will appear there. This list is shown below.

I am well aware that citations are only a part of the scientific value and impact, and that this piece of data should be taken into account only in a much broader context. For example, older people have the cumulative advantage; some fields have a greater propensity to cite papers than others, and mathematics papers in particular do not get cited as frequently; those who collaborate readily, or follow fashions readily, tend to garner more citations, and so forth. Often deep papers are understood by very few and receive fewer citations; papers get cited for wrong results; sometimes, the sense of the small number of experts that something is important is far more valuable than the "objective" criteria such as citations. To balance such possibilities, where the number 50 is not exceeded, the best three papers of each scientist (when provided by the author himself) have also been included, independent of the citation frequency. It is my belief that, taken together, the list contains some practical information that can be useful if used with sensitivity and appreciation for its limitations.

The list also includes our scientific consultants who are presently connected with ICTP's programs. Note that, for uniformity, the ISI science citation index has been used for the count. Though, for instance, it undercounts citations to high energy physics papers, it has the modest virtue of being a common denominator. The counts were made as of October 2008. The intention is to update this list once a year, and to maintain it on this page.

K.R. Sreenivasan
Abdus Salam Research Professor
Director

Further notes

1. The value of a scientist to the Centre has many dimensions, and these statistics do not reflect aspects of service.
2. The three best publications of the scientists, where they were provided, are indicated by an asterisk.
3. The so-called Hirsch-index (the h-index) is marked against each scientist's name.  A scientist with an h-index of N, for instance, has authored N papers, each of which has been cited at least N times. This index is believed by some people as a fairer measure of the value of a scientist. In contrast, the total number of papers published could weight many mediocre publications, whereas just counting the highest-ranked papers does not recognize a large and consistent body of work.