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Representation of Highly Cited Forestry and Ecology 
Researchers by Scientists, Publications and 
Citations
A Five-Year, Multi-Metric Geographic and Institutional Analysis (2020–2024) of the 
Stanford / Ioannidis Career-Long Citation Database
Analytical Report — Revised Edition
Prepared 6 July 2026
Data source: Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2025), Elsevier Data Repository, doi:10.17632/btchxktzyw (v3–v8)
Abstract
This report quantifies the geographic and institutional representation of the world’s most highly cited forestry  
and ecology researchers along three complementary metrics—the number of listed scientists, the sum of  
their career publications, and the sum of their career citations—for each annual release of the Stanford /  
Ioannidis “top-scientists” database from data years 2020 to 2024. Across the five releases, 23,374 author-
year records classified in the Forestry subfield (agriculture domain) or the Ecology subfield (biology domain)  
were extracted. In the 2024 release these 5,043 scientists account for 755 thousand career publications and  
53.3 million career citations. All three metrics are reported for every individual year and for every dimension
—continent,  world  sub-region,  country,  first-level  subdivision  (U.S.  state,  Canadian  province,  Australian 
state), and institution (labelled with its country). Rankings list the top 20 members individually and then  
aggregate the remainder into cumulative bands each holding roughly ten percent of the residual total. A tree-
chart maps the full field / sub-field / sub-sub-field taxonomy actually occupied by these authors, and a  
quantitative-versus-qualitative split is derived from each author’s secondary methodological subfield. On  
every metric the list is dominated by the Global North—the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and  
Australia, and specialized agricultural universities such as the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences—
while the fastest growth appears in China, Brazil and several mid-sized nations. Maps show the five-year  
average only.
Keywords: bibliometrics; scientometrics; citation indicators; publication counts; Stanford/Ioannidis list; 
forestry; ecology; research geography; Science-Metrix taxonomy; choropleth mapping; 
concentration/banding; quantitative methods.
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1. Background, Concept and Related Work
Citation-based  rankings  of  individual  scientists  are  widely  used  in  research  evaluation.  The  most 
common single statistic, the h-index [1], conflates productivity with impact and scales with career length, 
field and co-authorship. To standardize comparison, Ioannidis and colleagues devised a composite  
indicator (the “c-score”) combining six field-normalized metrics [2,3] and published an openly licensed  
database ranking about the top 100,000 scientists (and the top 2% of each subfield) across 22 fields  
and 174 subfields defined by the Science-Metrix journal ontology [3,4]. The database appears in career-
long and single-year forms and is refreshed annually from Scopus. This report analyses the career-long  
tables.
Whereas  the  original  database  is  typically  used  to  look  up  individuals,  this  report  treats  it  as  a 
population  and  asks  how  that  population  is  distributed—not  only  by  head-count  but  also  by  the 
publications and citations those researchers carry, which measure volume and influence rather than  
mere presence. Institution-level league tables (Shanghai, Times Higher Education, Nature Index) and  
the proprietary Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list address adjacent questions; the openness and  
field-normalization  of  the  Ioannidis  data  make  it  uniquely  suited  to  the  multi-metric,  multi-scale  
geographic  analysis  presented  here  for  forestry  and  ecology—fields  central  to  biodiversity,  land  
management and climate policy.
2. Data Description
The  primary  data  are  the  five  career-long  author  tables  (“Table_1_Authors_career”)  from  dataset 
doi:10.17632/btchxktzyw, versions 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8, corresponding to data years 2020–2024. Each ~75–
85 MB spreadsheet holds one row per ranked scientist (about 186,000–230,000 rows) with the author  
name, one large-institution affiliation, its ISO country code, the six component citation metrics and  
composite c-score,  the total career publication count (np) and career citation count (nc),  and the  
Science-Metrix classification (primary subfield, optional secondary subfield, and parent field). From  
each release we kept every row whose primary or secondary subfield was Forestry or Ecology, yielding  
a combined database of 23,374 author-year records that underlies this report and is delivered as an  
Excel workbook and CSV.
Table 1. Combined Forestry+Ecology totals for each release year, by metric. Publications and citations are the sums of each 
listed author’s career totals; a scientist counts once per release year.
Metric \ Year 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Scientists (list 
entries)
4,344 4,516 4,646 4,825 5,043
Publications 
(career papers)
561,883 611,960 655,300 701,760 754,910
Citations (career 
citations)
34,312,131 37,329,949 42,220,901 47,379,878 53,256,152
3. Methods
Metrics. Three quantities are tabulated for every group: the number of scientists (rows), publications  
(sum of np) and citations (sum of nc). Because career values are cumulative and each release re-lists  
largely the same people, the counting unit is the author-year; results are reported per release year, with  
maps showing the five-year average only.
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Geography. Continent, UN M49 world sub-region and country were derived from the ISO affiliation  
code.  For  the  United  States,  Canada  and  Australia,  each  institution  was  resolved  to  a  first-level 
subdivision  by  geolocating  its  main  campus  (a  verified  language-model  pass);  distributed  federal 
agencies are pooled as “Federal/Multi-site” and unplaceable institutions as “Unknown.” Institutions are  
labelled with their modal country.
Ranking and banding. For countries and institutions, the top 20 by a given metric are listed individually;  
the remainder (institutions truncated at the top 100) is then aggregated into consecutive bands each  
accumulating about ten percent of the residual total, so the long tail is summarized without discarding it.  
Complete, unbanded rankings of all 83 countries and all 2,344 institutions—by scientists, publications  
and citations, for every year—are provided in the companion workbook.
Taxonomy and orientation. The tree-chart (Section 4.2) shows every domain, field and subfield actually  
occupied by these authors’ primary or secondary classifications. A quantitative-versus-qualitative split  
labels an author “quantitative-oriented” when a primary or secondary subfield is a quantitative discipline
—Statistics  &  Probability,  any  Engineering  subfield,  Geological  &  Geomatics  Engineering  
(GIS/mensuration),  Artificial  Intelligence  &  Image  Processing  (remote  sensing),  Mathematics,  or  
Bioinformatics. Requested terms such as Silviculture, Biometrics, Mensuration, Forest Management,  
GIS and Remote Sensing are forestry sub-disciplines that are not distinct labels in the Science-Metrix  
scheme;  they  are  captured  only  insofar  as  they  map  onto  these  subfields,  and  Forestry/Ecology 
themselves are treated as the home fields rather than as quantitative or qualitative. Values were  
computed with Python (pandas); figures with matplotlib; maps use Natural Earth boundaries [6]. All  
totals were independently re-verified against the source releases.
4. Results
4.1 Overall totals by metric and year
All three metrics rose over the five years. Scientists grew 16% (4,344→5,043); career publications  
summed by the cohort grew from 562k to 755k; and career citations from 34.3M to 53.3M (Figure 1).  
Citations grew  fastest  in relative  terms,  reflecting  both new entrants  and the  continual accrual of  
citations to established authors.
Figure 1. Cohort totals per release year for each metric: number of scientists, summed career publications, summed career 
citations.
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4.2 Taxonomy tree: fields, sub-fields and sub-sub-fields present in the data
Although every author is a forestry or ecology researcher, their secondary classifications spread across  
the  whole  of  science.  Figure  2  charts  the  122  sub-sub-fields  (Science-Metrix  subfields)  actually 
occupied by the cohort, grouped under their 19 sub-fields (fields) and 5 fields (domains). The two target  
sub-sub-fields (Forestry, Ecology) are gold; 18 quantitative sub-sub-fields are marked in blue. Beyond  
the  home  branches  (Biology  and  Agriculture-Fisheries-Forestry  dominate),  the  largest  secondary  
presences are in Earth & Environmental Sciences, Enabling Technologies (energy, biotechnology) and  
the  Geomatics/Environmental  Engineering  subfields  that  carry  the  quantitative,  GIS-  and  remote-
sensing-oriented work.
Figure 2. Tree-chart of the Field (Domain) → Sub-Field → Sub-Sub-Field taxonomy occupied by the Forestry+Ecology cohort. 
Right-hand numbers are author-records touching each node across 2020–2024 (an author may appear under two sub-sub-
fields). Gold = target subfields; blue (») = quantitative subfields; grey = other.
4.3 Field composition and quantitative vs qualitative orientation
Ecology dominates the cohort: in 2024, 3,854 of 5,043 scientists were in Ecology, 814 in Forestry and  
375 in both, a roughly five-to-one ecology-to-forestry ratio that holds on publications and citations too  
(Figure 3). Applying the secondary-subfield rule, only about six percent of the cohort is quantitative-
oriented (Figure 4): forestry and ecology remain, in these data, predominantly field- and organism-
based rather than methodological, though the quantitative minority is growing slightly.
Table 2a. Field composition by scientists, per year.
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Field 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Total
Ecology 3,372 3,492 3,581 3,699 3,854 17,998
Forestry 653 687 723 761 814 3,638
Both 319 337 342 365 375 1,738
Table 2b. Field composition by publications, thousands, per year.
Field 2020 ('000) 2021 ('000) 2022 ('000) 2023 ('000) 2024 ('000) Total ('000)
Ecology 454.3 493.2 528.0 562.5 605.9 2,643.9
Forestry 74.4 81.4 87.6 95.7 102.6 441.7
Both 33.2 37.4 39.7 43.6 46.4 200.3
Table 2c. Field composition by citations, millions, per year.
Field 2020 (M) 2021 (M) 2022 (M) 2023 (M) 2024 (M) Total (M)
Ecology 29.87 32.34 36.67 41.06 46.24 186.18
Forestry 2.71 2.98 3.32 3.76 4.19 16.95
Both 1.74 2.01 2.23 2.56 2.83 11.36
Figure 3. Field composition (Ecology / both / Forestry) per year, for each metric.
Table 3. Quantitative- vs qualitative-oriented scientists per year (by secondary Science-Metrix subfield).
Orientation 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Total
Quantitative-
oriented
265 276 288 299 315 1,443
Qualitative-
oriented
4,079 4,240 4,358 4,526 4,728 21,931
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Figure 4. Quantitative- vs qualitative-oriented scientists per year, for each metric.
4.4 Representation by continent and world region
On every metric, North America and Europe supply the great majority of the cohort, with Oceania  
(Australia and New Zealand) a strong third and Asia, South America and Africa trailing far behind  
despite holding most of the world’s forests and biodiversity (Figure 5, maps in Figure 8).
Table 4a. Continents by scientists, per year.
Continent 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Total
North America 2,174 2,213 2,245 2,292 2,365 11,289
Europe 1,485 1,554 1,613 1,685 1,786 8,123
Oceania 360 386 399 422 429 1,996
Asia 189 202 233 256 282 1,162
South America 78 85 91 96 107 457
Africa 53 65 60 66 72 316
Table 4b. Continents by publications, thousands, per year.
Continent 2020 ('000) 2021 ('000) 2022 ('000) 2023 ('000) 2024 ('000) Total ('000)
North America 254.0 269.7 283.7 298.2 314.3 1,419.9
Europe 209.6 230.2 247.6 265.9 290.6 1,244.0
Oceania 51.2 56.9 61.7 66.4 69.8 306.0
Asia 27.0 30.6 37.5 44.3 50.3 189.7
South America 10.9 12.4 13.6 14.9 17.3 69.1
Africa 8.8 10.8 10.8 11.6 12.5 54.5
Table 4c. Continents by citations, millions, per year.
Continent 2020 (M) 2021 (M) 2022 (M) 2023 (M) 2024 (M) Total (M)
North America 17.24 18.39 20.47 22.43 24.78 103.31
Europe 11.98 13.25 15.11 17.29 19.73 77.36
Oceania 3.00 3.27 3.72 4.23 4.61 18.83
Asia 1.15 1.29 1.68 1.99 2.45 8.56
South America 0.53 0.58 0.67 0.80 1.04 3.62
Africa 0.38 0.48 0.54 0.61 0.64 2.66
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Figure 5. Continents by each metric, per release year.
Table 5. World sub-regions by number of scientists, per year (publications and citations by region are in the workbook).
World sub-
region
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Total
Northern 
America
2,146 2,178 2,211 2,257 2,336 11,128
Northern 
Europe
752 787 800 820 865 4,024
Western Europe 519 541 565 602 624 2,851
Australia & New 
Zealand
360 386 399 422 429 1,996
Southern 
Europe
164 172 190 202 221 949
Eastern Asia 108 124 143 162 178 715
South America 78 85 91 96 107 457
Eastern Europe 50 54 58 61 76 299
Southern Africa 39 51 47 49 54 240
Western Asia 40 39 48 50 52 229
Central America 24 27 29 30 22 132
Southern Asia 19 20 25 28 31 123
South-eastern 
Asia
22 19 17 16 21 95
Eastern Africa 10 10 9 13 11 53
Caribbean 4 8 5 5 7 29
Western Africa 3 3 3 3 3 15
Northern Africa 1 1 1 1 4 8
4.5 Representation by country (top 20 individual, remainder banded)
The United States leads on every metric (1,917 scientists in 2024), followed by the United Kingdom,  
Canada and Australia; Sweden and Finland punch far above their size. Tables 6a–c list the top 20  
countries individually and band the remainder into ~10% cumulative groups; the per-year line charts  
(Figure 6) and the average maps (Figure 8) show the spatial pattern and the faster growth of China,  
Brazil and other emerging producers.
Table 6a. Countries by scientists: top 20 individual, remainder in ~10% cumulative bands.
Country 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Total
United States 1,766 1,787 1,813 1,842 1,917 9,125
United Kingdom 389 402 400 409 426 2,026
Canada 379 390 397 413 417 1,996
Australia 301 320 333 350 348 1,652
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Germany 169 185 197 208 219 978
Sweden 155 162 161 170 180 828
France 105 112 117 123 131 588
Finland 103 107 116 121 123 570
Netherlands 107 108 109 114 119 557
Spain 93 94 106 109 121 523
Switzerland 85 86 91 96 96 454
New Zealand 59 66 66 72 81 344
China 48 52 66 85 92 343
Norway 50 57 58 59 69 293
Japan 46 55 58 59 63 281
Italy 46 48 54 62 66 276
Brazil 40 45 50 54 59 248
South Africa 38 50 46 48 53 235
Denmark 37 41 46 43 48 215
Austria 30 29 32 38 34 163
Ranks 21–22 
(2)
56 58 66 62 64 306
Ranks 23–24 
(2)
39 40 39 44 46 208
Ranks 25–26 
(2)
27 30 37 39 42 175
Ranks 27–29 
(3)
31 33 35 38 45 182
Ranks 30–33 
(4)
34 38 35 40 38 185
Ranks 34–38 
(5)
34 32 36 33 41 176
Ranks 39–45 
(7)
31 37 36 40 37 181
Ranks 46–61 
(16)
33 29 30 32 45 169
Ranks 62–83 
(22)
8 12 11 14 21 66
Table 6b. Countries by publications, thousands: top 20 individual, remainder in ~10% cumulative bands.
Country 2020 ('000) 2021 ('000) 2022 ('000) 2023 ('000) 2024 ('000) Total ('000)
United States 201.5 212.6 223.9 234.2 249.1 1,121.3
United Kingdom 55.0 59.5 61.5 65.2 69.0 310.2
Canada 48.7 52.8 55.2 58.9 61.3 277.0
Australia 43.0 47.4 51.8 56.0 57.7 255.8
Germany 25.3 29.3 32.7 35.9 38.8 162.0
France 16.4 18.0 19.4 20.8 23.4 98.0
Sweden 16.1 17.7 18.1 19.3 21.6 92.8
Spain 14.3 15.1 17.9 19.2 22.3 88.8
Netherlands 14.6 15.3 16.6 17.8 18.7 83.1
Finland 14.5 15.1 16.5 17.7 18.1 81.8
Switzerland 12.5 13.6 15.1 16.1 16.6 73.8
China 8.8 9.9 13.5 18.6 22.3 73.1
New Zealand 8.2 9.6 10.0 10.4 12.1 50.2
Norway 7.5 9.1 9.3 9.3 11.8 47.0
South Africa 7.0 9.2 9.0 9.3 10.4 44.9
Italy 6.8 7.4 8.8 10.1 11.4 44.4
Brazil 6.4 7.6 8.5 9.5 10.6 42.5
Japan 6.2 8.0 8.2 8.3 9.3 39.9
Denmark 5.7 6.5 7.3 6.9 7.6 34.1
Belgium 4.6 4.7 4.4 5.9 6.0 25.6
Ranks 21–21 
(1)
4.0 4.8 4.9 4.7 5.5 23.8
Ranks 22–23 
(2)
7.3 7.4 8.9 9.7 9.3 42.5
Ranks 24–25 
(2)
3.9 4.4 4.7 5.2 6.3 24.4
Ranks 26–28 
(3)
4.5 5.2 6.8 7.2 7.7 31.3
Ranks 29–32 
(4)
5.2 5.6 5.5 5.8 6.4 28.6
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Ranks 33–37 
(5)
3.8 5.2 5.6 5.6 6.0 26.2
Ranks 38–43 
(6)
4.4 3.8 4.5 5.8 6.2 24.7
Ranks 44–58 
(15)
4.2 4.4 4.0 5.2 6.0 23.7
Ranks 59–83 
(25)
1.1 1.8 2.3 2.9 3.5 11.7
Table 6c. Countries by citations, millions: top 20 individual, remainder in ~10% cumulative bands.
Country 2020 (M) 2021 (M) 2022 (M) 2023 (M) 2024 (M) Total (M)
United States 14.45 15.35 17.06 18.64 20.82 86.33
United Kingdom 3.53 3.91 4.28 4.83 5.38 21.93
Australia 2.61 2.83 3.23 3.69 3.96 16.33
Canada 2.59 2.81 3.10 3.46 3.77 15.73
Germany 1.36 1.62 1.99 2.31 2.63 9.91
France 1.13 1.18 1.30 1.53 1.77 6.91
Sweden 1.00 1.09 1.17 1.36 1.58 6.21
Netherlands 0.97 1.01 1.19 1.35 1.55 6.07
Switzerland 0.78 0.88 1.04 1.18 1.26 5.13
Spain 0.70 0.75 0.94 1.08 1.34 4.81
Finland 0.60 0.65 0.76 0.85 0.89 3.75
China 0.40 0.41 0.61 0.84 1.07 3.33
Norway 0.39 0.47 0.53 0.52 0.72 2.63
New Zealand 0.39 0.44 0.49 0.53 0.64 2.50
South Africa 0.32 0.43 0.48 0.52 0.54 2.29
Denmark 0.32 0.35 0.41 0.42 0.49 1.98
Brazil 0.23 0.29 0.36 0.44 0.56 1.87
Italy 0.26 0.29 0.35 0.43 0.52 1.85
Japan 0.23 0.29 0.33 0.35 0.41 1.62
Belgium 0.22 0.22 0.24 0.35 0.35 1.40
Ranks 21–21 
(1)
0.18 0.22 0.24 0.26 0.30 1.21
Ranks 22–23 
(2)
0.33 0.34 0.41 0.49 0.54 2.11
Ranks 24–25 
(2)
0.19 0.21 0.34 0.34 0.31 1.38
Ranks 26–28 
(3)
0.26 0.27 0.30 0.27 0.35 1.45
Ranks 29–31 
(3)
0.12 0.21 0.27 0.28 0.36 1.23
Ranks 32–35 
(4)
0.22 0.25 0.26 0.32 0.26 1.31
Ranks 36–41 
(6)
0.20 0.21 0.22 0.28 0.33 1.26
Ranks 42–54 
(13)
0.24 0.18 0.18 0.27 0.32 1.19
Ranks 55–83 
(29)
0.06 0.09 0.10 0.14 0.21 0.61
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Figure 6. Top-8 countries by each metric, per release year.
Figure 7. Countries by scientists (average/yr): top-20 individual bars, remainder in ~10% cumulative bands.
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Figure 8. World choropleths of the five-year average per year for each metric (scientists, publications, citations). Boundaries: 
Natural Earth [6].
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4.6 Subnational representation (United States, Canada, Australia)
Within the United States, California leads on all metrics; a pooled block of federal agencies (USDA  
Forest Service, USGS, USDA-ARS) ranks second; New York, North Carolina, Colorado, Oregon and  
Florida follow (Figure 9 maps the average of each metric). In Canada, Ontario and British Columbia  
lead; in Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. Full per-metric, per-year subnational tables are in 
the workbook.
Table 7. Top U.S. states/categories by number of scientists, per year (publications and citations by state are in the workbook).
US state / 
category
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Total
California 224 228 240 244 246 1,182
Federal/Multi-
site
141 140 142 179 175 777
New York 100 97 101 99 96 493
North Carolina 69 72 76 79 77 373
Colorado 75 73 69 67 73 357
Oregon 72 71 74 65 69 351
Florida 71 65 69 68 69 342
Washington 61 65 68 69 56 319
Michigan 52 58 58 57 66 291
Massachusetts 58 57 57 57 54 283
Unknown 42 49 49 28 110 278
Arizona 56 49 50 61 46 262
Wisconsin 49 48 48 41 53 239
Virginia 43 39 41 41 46 210
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Figure 9. United States choropleths of the five-year average per year for each metric (contiguous states; AK and HI omitted from 
frame).
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4.7 Representation by institution (with country; top 20 individual, ranks 21–100 banded)
The Swedish University  of  Agricultural  Sciences  leads  on  scientists,  with  the  University  of  British 
Columbia, UC Davis, Oregon State University and Wageningen close behind; U.S. federal research  
bodies and land-grant universities are prominent. Tables 8a–c list the top 20 institutions (with country)  
individually and band ranks 21–100 into ~10% cumulative groups; per-year trends are in Figure 10.
Table 8a. Institutions by scientists: top 20 individual, ranks 21–100 in ~10% cumulative bands.
Institution 
(country)
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Total
Sveriges 
lantbruksuniver
sitet (Sweden)
54 60 58 61 61 294
University of 
California, 
Davis (United 
States)
54 55 55 56 53 273
The University 
of British 
Columbia 
(Canada)
53 47 51 57 57 265
Oregon State 
University 
(United States)
48 48 53 50 48 247
Wageningen 
University & 
Research 
(Netherlands)
42 45 42 43 43 215
USDA Forest 
Service (United 
States)
33 29 32 73 36 203
University of 
Washington 
(United States)
37 40 41 38 29 185
University of 
Wisconsin-
Madison 
(United States)
34 34 34 31 36 169
Michigan State 
University 
(United States)
29 32 30 33 37 161
Helsingin 
Yliopisto 
(Finland)
28 30 33 36 34 161
University of 
Minnesota Twin 
Cities (United 
States)
32 29 34 32 34 161
Colorado State 
University 
(United States)
32 32 30 33 32 159
Cornell 
University 
(United States)
26 27 31 32 29 145
University of 
Toronto 
(Canada)
28 30 31 28 28 145
NC State 
University 
(United States)
24 26 31 30 28 139
University of 
Florida (United 
States)
29 24 27 30 28 138
University of 
Alberta 
(Canada)
26 29 28 26 23 132
University of 
Georgia (United 
25 27 24 23 28 127
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States)
University of 
Oxford (United 
Kingdom)
22 21 22 28 30 123
Natural 
Resources 
Institute Finland 
(Luke) (Finland)
23 23 23 24 23 116
Ranks 21–26 
(6)
120 123 125 143 130 641
Ranks 27–32 
(6)
114 121 114 119 121 589
Ranks 33–39 
(7)
124 127 136 123 131 641
Ranks 40–46 
(7)
96 95 113 138 132 574
Ranks 47–54 
(8)
123 117 109 136 105 590
Ranks 55–63 
(9)
122 114 125 126 125 612
Ranks 64–72 
(9)
96 112 112 147 108 575
Ranks 73–82 
(10)
112 111 114 132 111 580
Ranks 83–93 
(11)
115 108 115 127 123 588
Ranks 94–100 
(7)
77 74 75 58 62 346
Table 8b. Institutions by publications, thousands: top 20 individual, ranks 21–100 in ~10% cumulative bands.
Institution 
(country)
2020 ('000) 2021 ('000) 2022 ('000) 2023 ('000) 2024 ('000) Total ('000)
The University 
of British 
Columbia 
(Canada)
7.1 7.1 7.8 9.2 9.3 40.5
University of 
California, 
Davis (United 
States)
6.2 6.5 6.6 7.0 7.0 33.4
Sveriges 
lantbruksuniver
sitet (Sweden)
5.0 5.5 5.6 6.2 6.2 28.5
Wageningen 
University & 
Research 
(Netherlands)
5.3 5.9 5.6 5.8 5.8 28.3
University of 
Oxford (United 
Kingdom)
4.6 4.8 4.9 6.5 6.9 27.7
Oregon State 
University 
(United States)
4.9 4.9 5.4 5.8 5.5 26.4
University of 
Minnesota Twin 
Cities (United 
States)
4.6 4.4 5.5 5.3 5.2 25.0
University of 
Wisconsin-
Madison 
(United States)
4.7 4.8 4.9 4.8 5.4 24.6
Helsingin 
Yliopisto 
(Finland)
4.0 4.4 4.6 5.2 4.9 23.1
Colorado State 
University 
(United States)
4.3 4.6 4.5 4.5 4.6 22.5
University of 
Washington 
4.3 4.7 4.9 4.8 3.4 22.0
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(United States)
The University 
of Queensland 
(Australia)
3.7 3.8 4.1 4.7 5.6 22.0
NC State 
University 
(United States)
3.3 3.6 4.7 5.0 4.7 21.3
Cornell 
University 
(United States)
3.3 3.5 4.4 4.8 4.3 20.4
University of 
Toronto 
(Canada)
3.5 4.3 4.2 3.9 4.0 19.9
Michigan State 
University 
(United States)
3.2 3.8 3.5 4.1 5.2 19.7
University of 
Alberta 
(Canada)
3.5 4.2 4.2 3.8 3.6 19.4
Georg-August-
Universität 
Göttingen 
(Germany)
3.5 3.6 3.6 4.3 3.4 18.4
Stanford 
University 
(United States)
3.4 3.7 3.9 3.6 3.8 18.3
James Cook 
University 
(Australia)
3.6 3.6 3.4 3.2 4.0 17.9
Ranks 21–26 
(6)
17.0 17.4 18.1 23.9 19.9 96.4
Ranks 27–32 
(6)
14.9 16.6 16.7 18.5 18.9 85.7
Ranks 33–39 
(7)
13.9 17.2 18.6 20.0 20.7 90.4
Ranks 40–46 
(7)
15.2 17.3 17.7 17.7 18.6 86.5
Ranks 47–54 
(8)
16.7 17.1 18.3 20.7 18.7 91.5
Ranks 55–63 
(9)
17.5 17.2 17.6 22.9 18.3 93.5
Ranks 64–73 
(10)
18.4 18.1 18.4 19.5 18.4 92.7
Ranks 74–84 
(11)
15.1 16.0 20.1 21.8 19.5 92.5
Ranks 85–95 
(11)
14.7 15.2 16.6 21.2 17.8 85.4
Ranks 96–100 
(5)
6.6 6.9 7.5 7.8 7.7 36.5
Table 8c. Institutions by citations, millions: top 20 individual, ranks 21–100 in ~10% cumulative bands.
Institution 
(country)
2020 (M) 2021 (M) 2022 (M) 2023 (M) 2024 (M) Total (M)
University of 
California, 
Davis (United 
States)
0.46 0.48 0.52 0.59 0.63 2.67
The University 
of British 
Columbia 
(Canada)
0.43 0.43 0.51 0.61 0.67 2.65
Stanford 
University 
(United States)
0.44 0.48 0.55 0.53 0.61 2.62
Colorado State 
University 
(United States)
0.40 0.44 0.45 0.53 0.54 2.36
Wageningen 
University & 
0.40 0.43 0.44 0.50 0.58 2.34
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Research 
(Netherlands)
University of 
Minnesota Twin 
Cities (United 
States)
0.44 0.33 0.53 0.46 0.54 2.29
University of 
Wisconsin-
Madison 
(United States)
0.38 0.39 0.42 0.43 0.50 2.12
University of 
Oxford (United 
Kingdom)
0.29 0.30 0.32 0.48 0.55 1.95
Oregon State 
University 
(United States)
0.31 0.32 0.39 0.38 0.41 1.81
James Cook 
University 
(Australia)
0.32 0.31 0.34 0.34 0.43 1.73
University of 
Washington 
(United States)
0.30 0.33 0.38 0.43 0.28 1.72
Sveriges 
lantbruksuniver
sitet (Sweden)
0.27 0.29 0.30 0.34 0.36 1.55
Michigan State 
University 
(United States)
0.25 0.29 0.28 0.32 0.38 1.52
University of 
Exeter (United 
Kingdom)
0.23 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.37 1.50
University of 
California, 
Santa Barbara 
(United States)
0.22 0.31 0.27 0.37 0.32 1.49
University of 
Colorado 
Boulder (United 
States)
0.23 0.25 0.31 0.34 0.34 1.48
Cornell 
University 
(United States)
0.22 0.24 0.31 0.36 0.34 1.47
The University 
of Queensland 
(Australia)
0.23 0.24 0.27 0.32 0.41 1.46
Helsingin 
Yliopisto 
(Finland)
0.23 0.26 0.30 0.33 0.33 1.44
Duke University 
(United States)
0.23 0.23 0.24 0.30 0.33 1.33
Ranks 21–26 
(6)
1.34 1.30 1.34 1.79 1.57 7.34
Ranks 27–32 
(6)
1.06 1.15 1.32 1.64 1.61 6.78
Ranks 33–39 
(7)
1.15 1.41 1.41 1.51 1.73 7.21
Ranks 40–46 
(7)
1.06 1.11 1.09 1.93 1.27 6.47
Ranks 47–54 
(8)
0.88 0.95 1.28 1.64 1.95 6.70
Ranks 55–63 
(9)
1.12 1.28 1.38 1.49 1.49 6.77
Ranks 64–73 
(10)
1.11 1.20 1.37 1.50 1.47 6.65
Ranks 74–84 
(11)
1.02 1.03 1.24 1.73 1.54 6.56
Ranks 85–96 
(12)
1.13 1.16 1.32 1.23 1.44 6.28
Ranks 97–100 
(4)
0.32 0.33 0.34 0.45 0.44 1.88
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Figure 10. Top-7 institutions by each metric, per release year.
Figure 11. Institutions by scientists (average/yr): top-20 individual, ranks 21–100 in ~10% cumulative bands.
===== PAGE 19 =====
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5. Discussion
Adding publications and citations to the head-count sharpens rather than softens the picture: the same  
countries and institutions that field the most highly cited forestry and ecology researchers also carry, by  
construction, most of the cohort’s papers and citations, so influence is at least as concentrated as  
presence. The gap between where forests and biodiversity are (largely tropical and Global South) and  
where the recognized, most-cited expertise is affiliated (temperate, wealthy, English-publishing) is a  
quantitative entry point into debates on research equity and capacity-building.
The  multi-metric,  multi-scale  tables  support  several  uses:  funders  and  ministries  can  benchmark 
national standing on head-count, output and impact separately and track it yearly; universities can  
benchmark peers and target recruitment (the banded tail shows where the next tier sits); editors can  
widen  reviewer  and  speaker  pools  using  the  country  and  subnational  geography;  and science-of-
science researchers can study concentration (the banding makes the long tail explicit) and emergence  
(China’s  and  Brazil’s  growth).  The  quantitative-orientation  split  flags  the  small  but  growing  
methodological community (GIS, remote sensing, statistics, engineering) within these fields.
Limitations carry over and compound. Affiliation country is current institution, not nationality or origin.  
Scopus coverage biases toward English-language journals. Publication and citation sums inherit the  
skew of citation distributions—a few superstar authors dominate—so group totals are sensitive to  
individual outliers. The counting unit is the author-year, so annual changes mix genuine entry with re-
computation. Subnational placement  leaves  ~6% of  U.S.  institutions  “Unknown”  and pools  federal  
agencies. Finally, the quantitative/qualitative split is a coarse proxy: the forestry sub-disciplines the  
reader named (Silviculture, Mensuration, Forest Management…) are not separable in Science-Metrix  
and are approximated by adjacent subfields.
6. Conclusion
Measured by scientists, publications or citations, the population of highly cited forestry and ecology  
researchers  is  large  and  strongly  concentrated  in  the  Global  North.  North  America  and  Europe 
dominate  every  metric;  the  United  States,  United  Kingdom,  Canada  and  Australia  lead  among  
countries;  California  and  a  block  of  U.S.  federal  agencies  lead  subnationally;  and  the  Swedish  
University of Agricultural Sciences is the most represented institution. Ecology outnumbers forestry  
about five to one, and only ~6% of the cohort is quantitatively oriented. The banded rankings show a  
long, evenly graded tail beneath the leaders, and the growth signal—fastest in China, Brazil and mid-
sized nations—points to a slow diversification that the citation and publication metrics corroborate as  
clearly as the head-count.
7. Project Summary
Five career-long releases of the Stanford / Ioannidis database (2020–2024) were filtered to Forestry  
and Ecology, combined into 23,374 records, and analysed by number of scientists, publications and  
citations across continent, region, country, subnational unit, institution (with country) and taxonomic  
subfield. Rankings list the top 20 individually and band the rest by ~10% cumulative contribution; maps  
show the five-year average. Deliverables: this report; a comprehensive workbook with the full per-year,  
per-metric rankings of all 83 countries and all 2,344 institutions plus continent, region, subnational, field,  
orientation, taxonomy-tree and map-data sheets; and the combined career database (Excel and CSV).
===== PAGE 20 =====
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8. References and Data Sources
[1] Hirsch, J. E. (2005). An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. PNAS, 102(46), 16569–
16572. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0507655102
[2] Ioannidis, J. P. A., Klavans, R., & Boyack, K. W. (2016). Multiple citation indicators and their composite across 
scientific disciplines. PLoS Biology, 14(7), e1002501. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002501
[3] Ioannidis, J. P. A., Baas, J., Klavans, R., & Boyack, K. W. (2019). A standardized citation metrics author 
database annotated for scientific field. PLoS Biology, 17(8), e3000384. 
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000384
[4] Ioannidis, J. P. A., Boyack, K. W., & Baas, J. (2020). Updated science-wide author databases of standardized 
citation indicators. PLoS Biology, 18(10), e3000918. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000918
[5] Archambault, É., Beauchesne, O. H., & Caruso, J. (2011). Towards a multilingual, comprehensive and open 
scientific journal ontology. Proc. 13th ISSI Conference, 66–77. (Science-Metrix classification.)
[6] Natural Earth (2024). Free vector and raster map data, 1:110m Admin 0 – Countries. 
https://www.naturalearthdata.com (public domain).
[7] Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2025). August 2025 data-update for “Updated science-wide author databases of 
standardized citation indicators” (Version 8) [Data set]. Elsevier Data Repository. 
https://doi.org/10.17632/btchxktzyw.8
Data sources.
Primary:  career-long  author  tables  (Table_1_Authors_career),  dataset  doi:10.17632/btchxktzyw,  versions  
3/5/6/7/8, via the Elsevier Digital Commons / Mendeley Data public API. Taxonomy: field/subfield threshold tables  
(Table_2) in the same dataset. Base maps: Natural Earth (world) and a public US-state boundary file. Analysis and 
figures: Python (pandas, openpyxl, matplotlib).