Top ten get cited

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) director Professor Suzanne Cory and Australian chief scientist Dr Jim Peacock are two of 10 researchers judged the most influential in Australian science by information provider Thomson Scientific.

James Cook University marine ecologist Professor Terry Hughes and Macquarie University plant ecologist Dr Ian Wright were also among the group, receiving Thomson Scientific Citation Awards at the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday

Cory achieved a quite remarkable 463.89 citations per paper, far ahead of the rest of the field except for ANU-based American astronomer Brian Schmidt, who was part of the global team that traced the acceleration of the universe in 1998.

The methodology for evaluating research influence involved reviewing the fields that dominate research papers in Australian institutions and the individuals who contribute to those fields over a period of 10 years - 1997 to 2007.

Those fields are chemistry, education, biochemistry and molecular biology (Cory), economics, marine/freshwater biology (Hughes), psychiatry, plant sciences (Peacock), astronomy/astrophysics, ecology (Wright) and geosciences.

Statistics such as total publications, total citations and average citations per paper were evaluated and adjustments were made to focus on researchers who had made substantial and long-term contributions.

Cory, best known for her work on the regulation of apoptosis by the Bcl-2 family of genes, made special mention of her colleagues David Vaux, Andreas Strasser, Jerry Adams, David Huang and the late Alan Harris for their contribution.

According to Thomson Scientific data, in 2007 Australia ranked among the top 10 nations for the influence of its scientific papers.