Macquarie’s research excellence has been recognised in three prestigious citation-based rankings, with academics and discipline groups from across the University named in the top echelon of researchers worldwide.

Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) Professor Sakkie Pretorius says the results demonstrate the impressive breadth and impact of the world-changing research being produced at Macquarie.

“We have many stand-out researchers who are producing research that is at the very forefront of global knowledge, as evidenced in these new international rankings,” he says. “It is also gratifying to see recognition for the collective strength of some of our key disciplines, where we have real depth of expertise.”

Macquarie’s global impact

The annual Highly Cited Researchers list from insights and analytics company Clarivate features five Macquarie researchers among the most frequently cited researchers in the world.

• Associate Professor Richard McDermid joins the list for his highly impactful research into galaxy formation and evolution, as does Dr Xuyun Zhang for his work in big data mining and cybersecurity.
• Honorary Professor in Ecology and Evolution Colin Prentice, Emeritus Professor Richard Kefford, internationally acclaimed melanoma researcher, and Honarary Professor Ian Wright have cemented their place for consecutive years on the list as some of the most influential in their fields.

Emeritus Professor Kefford was also named by The Australian as the top researcher nationally in the fields of immunology and cell biology. The newspaper’s Research Magazine 2021 identifies Australian-based researchers whose papers published in the 20 top journals in their field in the past five years have had the most citations by other researchers. For his innovative work at the intersection of healthcare and AI, Professor Enrico Coiera was recognised as the leader in the field of medical informatics. Professor Anand Deva led impact in the field of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery while Professor Richard Harvey was most influential in the field of Otolaryngology. Dr Jelle Bruineberg was named the most cited researcher in Philosophy as well as Epistemology & Scientific History, and in the sphere of Special Education, Professor Rauno Parrila was the top researcher. The Centre for Emotional Health’s Dr Miri Forbes was included in the report’s 40 ‘rising stars’ of research.

Macquarie was also named the top research institution in the country in 10 research fields:

• Accounting and taxation
• Medical Informatics
• Molecular Biology
• Otolaryngology
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Epistemology & Scientific History
• Foreign Language Learning
• Philosophy
• Animal Behavior & Ethology
• Cell Biology

Over 150 Macquarie academics are also in the top two per cent of researchers worldwide, according to a recently released study from Professor John Ioannidis at Stanford University.

Ioannidis uses a range of metrics to compile a list of over 100,000 top researchers as measured by citations. The study looks at researchers’ impact in a single year (2020), in which 157 Macquarie researchers were named, as well as across academics’ entire careers, with 130 from Macquarie who made the top two per cent. The full dataset is available for public access.