Potential outliers in this citation database may include authors with an
excessive number of publications, a large number of citations compared
to others in the same field, authors with a high number of
self-citations, and authors that a small number of highly-cited papers
have cited. Additionally, there may be authors that have been cited by a
large number of low-quality publications. These outliers may be caused
by factors such as the popularity of a particular research area, the
quality of the research, the reputation of the authors or institutions,
or even errors in the data. Based on Table 1, outliers in the data can
be identified and grouped into several categories.
Oldest and Youngest
Researchers
One most prominent of outliers in the data is the oldest and most active
researchers. In this study, the difference between the last and first
year of publication is considered as the publishing age of a researcher.
The median age in the database is 35 years, with a first publication in
1986 (Table 1). The database contains researchers who first published in
the 19th century. Table 2 presents the top oldest and still active
researchers (based on the year of most recent publication).
The oldest researcher in the Stanford list is William S. Marshall from
St. Francis Xavier University in Canada, who was listed as first
published in 1834 and continues to publish until 2021, which makes him 187 years of
publishing history. However, this example highlights a flaw in the
database, as it does not perform any rationality check to determine if
an author can continuously publish for more than 80 years. The database
lists 221 authors who have published for more than 80 years. In fact,
William or Bill Marshall is a Senior Research Professor in Biology at
St. Francis Xavier University. Bill had a Ph. D. from the University of
British Columbia in 1977 and had Postdoctoral studies at the University
of California at Berkeley. His first publication was in 1979 and is
still active in research. His research is epithelial and renal physiology in
lower vertebrates, especially teleosts.
The next oldest researcher listed is Lord Kelvin, who is listed to have
published in 1849 until 2011, a total of 162 years with only 6 papers.
Lord Kelvin’s real name is William Thomson, or known as
1st Baron Kelvin, OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, FRSE (1824
–1907). In fact, he is a British scientist who died in 1907 and could
not have published until 2011.
Francis Bonnet, an anesthesiologist from the Sorbonne University in
France, was mentioned as having published his first work in 1866. This
is incorrect, as Dr. Francis Bonnet, MD is a Professor at The Assistance
Paris Hospitals (Ap-Hp) Seat. His research interests are Ambulatory
Anaesthesia, Ambulatory Surgery and he is still alive.
Next in the list is University of Zurich’s Franz E. Weber, a professor of dental
medicine, was noted as having published his first paper in 1866. But
this professor is still alive in Zurich with research in
cranio-maxillofacial and oral surgery.
The top scientist John G.F. Cleland from the University of Glasgow,
who has 1236 publications to his credit (since 1960) but was listed as
having a first publication in 1867 and ranked at position 735. Professor
Cleland is a professor of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health still
working in Glasgow.
These are just few samples of incorrect attribution list. In fact, this database lists 221 authors as having published for more than 80 years.
Table 2. Top oldest and most active researchers. authfull : author name;
inst_name: institution name; firstyr: year of first publication;
lastyr: last year of publication; np6021: # papers 1960-2021; rank
(ns): rank based on composite score c, self-citations excluded; h21 (ns)
h-index as of end-2021.