This year, Assistant Professor Dr Markus Göker and Dr Jan Meier-Kolthoff from the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH in Braunschweig, Germany, are again among the world’s most cited scientists termed „Highly Cited Researchers“ (HCR). Scientists usually cite the most important work previously published on the topic in their papers. This makes the total number of citations of a paper a primary indicator of the quality of the research behind it.
The two bioinformaticians from Braunschweig, Germany, are on the 2022 list, published on November 15th by the analytics company Clarivate Analytics™ based on the publication database Web of Science™. According to the evaluation of Clarivate Analytics™, the two DSMZ researchers have had an exceptional research influence, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers published between 2011 and 2021 that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science™. Markus Göker is listed for the fourth time in a row and Jan Meier-Kolthoff for the third time in a row. The global list contains the names of 6,938 researchers of which 369 are located in Germany. The complete list can be found at https://clarivate.com/highly-cited-researchers/ Both awards were given in the „Microbiology“ category showing the importance that bioinformatics nowadays have on this important field within the life sciences. Moreover, it also underlines the role of DSMZ as an interdisciplinary infrastructure institution.
Pioneering work in genome-based taxonomy and phylogenomics
Both scientists work in the department Bioinformatics and Databases in which Dr. Markus Göker leads the working group Phylogenomics. For more than a decade both bioinformaticians establish methods and tools at the DSMZ for the genome-based taxonomy of organisms (primarily prokaryotes) and viruses. Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification of organisms and viruses and was heavily advanced in the last 15 years by bioinformatics and the so-called „-omics revolution“. Three highly-cited examples of their work include (1) the Type Strain Genome Server (TYGS), a high-throughput database-driven platform for genome-based taxonomy of microbes, (2) the Virus Classification and Tree Building Online Resource (VICTOR), an in silico framework for the phylogeny and classification of prokaryotic viruses, and, (3) the Genome-to-Genome Distance Calculator (GGDC), a web service for the genome-based delineation of prokaryotic (sub-)species, which is nowadays routinely used in almost any novel species description.
How the Highly Cited Researchers List is determined
If you“ve ever wondered how the top researchers are selected, Clarivate™ draws its data from the published papers that rank in the top one per cent by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science™ citation index. Data scientists and bibliometric experts at Clarivate™ assess the final list. Two especially noteworthy quality-assuring filter criteria applied by Clarivate™ are the removal of (1) massively multi-authored highly cited papers with more than 30 authors or explicit group authorships and (2) researchers whose level of self-citation exceeded, by far, the typical patterns of each eld. Details to the methodology are found at https://clarivate.com/highly-cited-researchers/methodology/
Press contact:
PhDr. Sven-David Müller, Head of Public Relations, Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH
Phone: ++49 (0)531/2616-300
Mail: press(at)dsmz.de
Die DSMZ ist das größte Bioressourcenzentren weltweit. Die Sammlung umfasst derzeit über 82.000 Bioressourcen.
Company-Contact
Leibniz-Institut DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen
PhDr. Sven-David Müller, M.Sc.
Inhoffenstraße 7 B
38124 Braunschweig
Phone: 0531-5312616300
E-Mail: sven.david.mueller@dsmz.de
Url: http://www.dsmz.de
Press
Leibniz-Institut DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen
Sven-David Müller
Inhoffenstraße 7 B
38124 Braunschweig
Phone: 0531-5312616300
E-Mail: sven.david.mueller@dsmz.de
Url: http://www.dsmz.de
