Astronomer joins elite citation list

by Valerie Shore

UVic astronomer Dr. Julio Navarro has become the third UVic scientist to be named one of the world's most "highly cited researchers" by Thomson ISI.

The designation means that Navarro's research has been extensively cited by other scientists in their publications. Citations are footnotes or references published within a scholarly paper that acknowledge the work and findings of others. Citation is an important way to measure a researcher's influence through time.

"It's certainly an honour to join this list," says Navarro, who is currently on sabbatical leave at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany. "Citation count is probably one of the least flawed ways of measuring the impact of someone's research on the work of his or her peers."

Navarro's research in theoretical cosmology focuses on the structure and dynamics of the stellar, gaseous and dark matter components of galaxies. In recent years, he's made several significant contributions to his field. Together, three of his publications have been cited more than 2,300 times in the scientific literature—a remarkable achievement at such an early career stage.

To compile the list of most highly cited researchers, ISI analyses millions of articles published between 1983 and 2002 in 21 broad categories in the physical and life sciences, medicine, engineering and the social sciences. Researchers are selected for inclusion based on the total number of citations generated by their publications within a given category.

The online database ISI-HighlyCited.com enables researchers from throughout the world to identify individuals, departments and laboratories that have made fundamental contributions to the advancement of science and technology in recent decades.

The university's other two "highly cited researchers" are UVic president and plant physiologist/biochemist Dr. David Turpin and Dr. Don Vandenberg (physics & astronomy).