Faculty of Science researchers at the forefront of global science
Well-known higher education rankings (e.g., ARWU, QS, THE) assess academic institutions based on various criteria and indicators, providing guidance both for policy-makers in science and education and for high school students planning their future. In recent years, however, alongside these institutional rankings, several publications have also emerged that aim to rank individual researchers’ performance. These are primarily based on a researcher’s publication output, which remains one of the most important measures of scientific achievement. The data is processed and compared by the compilers of these rankings using different methodologies and criteria, resulting in lists of the most outstanding experts in their respective fields. In autumn 2024, several such rankings were published, among which two — the Stanford list and the Research.com list — feature several of our colleagues with excellent results.
The Stanford list
In autumn 2024, Stanford University, in collaboration with the publisher Elsevier, released its ranking of the world’s most frequently cited researchers for the 7th time. Based on data from Scopus, the list highlights researchers belonging to the top 2% of scientists worldwide.
The publicly available database provides two separate evaluations: one for the previous calendar year (2023), and another for researchers’ entire careers. The dataset takes into account a number of indicators: citation counts, the h-index (a measure of the number of highly influential papers by an author), the hm-index corrected for co-authorship (which considers the number of authors per paper), citation counts according to authorship position (solo, first, or last author), and a composite metric called the CiteScore (c-score), which provides a comprehensive assessment of a researcher’s impact.
The 2024 edition of the list includes a total of 223,152 researchers worldwide, of whom 27 are affiliated with ELTE, and 22 specifically with the ELTE Faculty of Science (TTK). Based on the composite c-score, two of our colleagues — Tamás Ungár (ELTE TTK, Professor Emeritus) and Tamás Vicsek (ELTE TTK, Professor Emeritus) — stand out, ranking among the top 10,000 researchers worldwide.
In the career-long impact list, 217,097 researchers are featured, including 36 affiliated with ELTE, 30 of them from the Faculty of Science. Here again, the top three ELTE results were achieved by Faculty of Science researchers: Tamás Ungár (ELTE TTK, Professor Emeritus), Tamás Vicsek (ELTE TTK, Professor Emeritus), and Ádám Miklósi (ELTE TTK).
| author name | rank based on composite score c (2023) | rank based on composite score c - Career-long list | top ranked higher-level Science-Metrix category (field) for author | affiliation |
| Vicsek, Tamás | 8 263 | 5 907 | Physics & Astronomy | TTK |
| Ungár, Tamás | 6 257 | 11 718 | Enabling & Strategic Technologies | TTK |
| Miklósi, Ádám | 21 230 | 21 691 | Psychology & Cognitive Sciences | TTK |
| Császár, Attila G. | 64 029 | 22 145 | Physics & Astronomy | TTK |
| Szathmáry, Eörs | 55 704 | 33 967 | Biology | TTK |
| Inzelt, György | 234 291 | 51 517 | Enabling & Strategic Technologies | TTK |
| Szalay, Péter G. | 136 027 | 54 498 | Physics & Astronomy | TTK |
| Gubicza, Jenő | 24 889 | 55 588 | Enabling & Strategic Technologies | TTK |
| Podani, János | 64 065 | 62 997 | Biology | TTK |
| Tél, Tamás | 178144 | 63 554 | Physics & Astronomy | TTK |
| Molnár-Perl, Ibolya | 68 910 | Chemistry | TTK | |
| Turányi, Tamás | 71969 | 70 880 | Enabling & Strategic Technologies | TTK |
| Horváth, Frank † | 109032 | 73 259 | Earth & Environmental Sciences | TTK |
| Csabai, István | 73 409 | Physics & Astronomy | TTK | |
| Horváth, Gábor | 104767 | 73 588 | Physics & Astronomy | TTK |
| Dosztányi, Zsuzsanna | 30276 | 84 929 | Biomedical Research | TTK |
| Braun, Tibor | 95 448 | Chemistry | TTK | |
| Pozsgay, Balázs | 82695 | 101 415 | Physics & Astronomy | TTK |
| Groma, István | 127 887 | Enabling & Strategic Technologies | TTK | |
| Frank, András | 129 911 | Information & Communication Technologies | TTK | |
| Szenes, György | 149 963 | Physics & Astronomy | TTK | |
| Csanád, Máté | 157805 | 150 602 | Physics & Astronomy | TTK |
| Sárközy, András | 160 923 | Mathematics & Statistics | TTK | |
| Császár, Ákos † | 218094 | 177 183 | Mathematics & Statistics | TTK |
| Berdy, János | 123904 | 193 416 | Chemistry | TTK |
| Hudecz, Ferenc | 194 292 | Biomedical Research | TTK | |
| Cserti, József | 208 679 | Physics & Astronomy | TTK | |
| Révész, Ádám | 211408 | 226 327 | Enabling & Strategic Technologies | TTK |
| Láng, Győző G. | 230 878 | Enabling & Strategic Technologies | TTK | |
| Lendvai, János | 246 968 | Enabling & Strategic Technologies | TTK | |
| Juhász, Gábor | 88009 | Biomedical Research | TTK | |
| Vellai, Tibor | 91090 | Biomedical Research | TTK | |
| Józsi, Mihály | 184434 | Clinical Medicine | TTK |
The Research.com ranking
For over a decade, Research.com has published an overall researcher ranking, and this year marks the 4th edition of its field-specific researcher rankings. The compilers of the list draw on multiple databases — including OpenAlex and CrossRef — based mainly on data from autumn 2024, and in some cases from November 2023. Using the available information, they identify researchers in each scientific field and assign them a discipline-specific h-index (d-index) — a field-adjusted version of the h-index metric also used in the Stanford methodology.
In addition to the d-index, the rankings in each field also take into account the number of publications in journals and conference proceedings relevant to the discipline, as well as awards, memberships, and other recognitions. Based on these criteria, Research.com produces both an overall ranking and field-specific rankings.
Currently, no Hungarian researchers appear on the central overall lists. However, in the field-specific rankings, Hungarian researchers are represented in 13 disciplines, most of them affiliated with the ELTE Faculty of Science (TTK). Among the 253 Hungarian researchers featured on the 2024 list, 33 are affiliated with ELTE.
Biology and Biochemistry – 35 Hungarians / 2 from ELTE: Gábor Juhász (ELTE TTK), Mihály Józsi (ELTE TTK)
Chemistry – 32 Hungarians / 4 from ELTE: Attila Császár (ELTE TTK), Péter Szalay (ELTE TTK), András Perczel (ELTE TTK), György Inzelt (ELTE TTK – professor emeritus)
Earth Science – 10 Hungarians / 3 from ELTE: Ferenc Horváth (Frank Horváth) (ELTE TTK – professor emeritus) †, Szabolcs Harangi (ELTE TTK), József Pálfy (ELTE TTK)
Ecology and Evolution – 22 Hungarians / 2 from ELTE: János Török (ELTE TTK – professor emeritus), Gábor Herczeg (ELTE TTK)
Engineering and Technology – 13 Hungarians / 1 from ELTE: Tibor Braun (ELTE TTK) †
Environmental Sciences – 4 Hungarians / 1 from ELTE: Imre Salma (ELTE TTK)
Materials Science – 10 Hungarians / 2 from ELTE: Tamás Ungár (ELTE TTK – professor emeritus), Jenő Gubicza (ELTE TTK)
Mathematics – 16 Hungarians / 3 from ELTE: László Lovász (ELTE TTK – professor emeritus), András Frank (ELTE TTK – professor emeritus), András Sárközy (ELTE TTK – professor emeritus)
Neuroscience – 33 Hungarians / 3 from ELTE: Árpád Dobolyi (ELTE TTK), Karolina Janacsek (ELTE PPK), Dezső Németh (ELTE PPK)
Physics – 4 Hungarians / 3 from ELTE: István Csabai (ELTE TTK), Zoltán Fodor (ELTE TTK), Ádám Kiss (ELTE TTK – professor emeritus)
Plant Science and Agronomy – 8 Hungarians / 1 from ELTE: Gábor M. Kovács (ELTE TTK)
Psychology – 17 Hungarians / 7 from ELTE (including 2 ethologists): Ádám Miklósi (ELTE TTK), Attila Szabó (ELTE PPK), Vilmos Csányi (ELTE TTK – professor emeritus), Róbert Urbán (ELTE PPK), Karolina Janacsek (ELTE PPK), Dezső Németh (ELTE PPK), Gyöngyi Kökönyei (ELTE PPK)
Social Sciences and Humanities – 4 Hungarians / 1 from ELTE: Márta Gácsi (ELTE TTK)
(Translated by AI)