JMIR Publications CEO and Executive Editor Gunther Eysenbach Achieves #1 Ranking as Most Cited Researcher in Medical Informatics for Fifth Consecutive Year

Newswise — Toronto, ON (October 14, 2024) – JMIR Publications is proud to announce that Gunther Eysenbach, founder, CEO and executive editor, has once again been named the #1 most cited researcher in the subfield of medical informatics by Stanford/Elsevier’s Top 2% Scientists rankings. This marks the fifth consecutive year that Dr Eysenbach has secured this prestigious position, reaffirming his status as a leading authority and driving force in the field. He is also ranked #36 in the Top 100 Scientists in Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) ranking, and #396 among all 100,000 global scientists across all disciplines that made the Top 2% Scientists list.

Stanford/Elsevier’s Top 2% Scientists is a highly respected ranking that identifies the top 2% of the most cited scholars across various scientific disciplines. The data compiled by Stanford’s meta-researcher Prof. John Ioannidis provides standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions and a composite indicator (c-score). The c-score focuses on impact (citations) rather than productivity (number of publications) and it also incorporates information on co-authorship and author positions (single, first, last author positions being weighted higher).

Dr Eysenbach’s continued leadership in this ranking reflects his sustained and far-reaching contributions to medical informatics, a field dedicated to harnessing technology for the advancement of health care. His extensive research and publication record have profoundly influenced areas such as consumer health informatics, digital health, and open science. He has published seminal papers in the field of infodemiology (a field he created), health information quality, reporting standards for research as well as meta-research (research about how research is conducted and disseminated), for example being the first scholar who showed the citation advantage of open access. 

“Even though I am no longer in academia, being recognized as the #1 influential researcher in medical informatics for the fifth consecutive year is nice recognition of my life’s work, in particular as scientific medical informatics societies are often ignorant of the impact scholars have once the move to an industry position,” said Dr Eysenbach, who founded JMIR Publications 25 years ago as a logical extension of his passion for health information. “We pioneered open access and continue working on disruptive technologies and business approaches to re-engineer the publishing ecosystem. While citation metrics have their merit, we are building a more equitable system that gathers researchers’ open science scores to support early career development, tenure, and promotion. Our innovative “Plan P - Transform to Open Science” initiative streamlines the research journey from funding to protocol development to preprints to publication, allowing researchers to demonstrate adherence to best practices in open science. By accelerating publication cycles and removing unnecessary obstacles, we empower researchers to make timely contributions, enhance their visibility, and advance their careers.”

Dr Eysenbach continues to be the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Internet Research, which itself has been ranked one of the leading and top-cited journals in the field of medical informatics, health services research and digital health.

Dr Eysenbach is available for interviews to discuss his work in medical informatics, the future of academic publishing, and JMIR Publications’ innovative initiatives.

This continued recognition further solidifies JMIR Publications’ position as a pioneer in the field of medical informatics and highlights its dedication to disseminating impactful research that transforms health care.

Data Source:

Ioannidis, John P.A. (2024), “August 2024 data-update for "Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators"”, Elsevier Data Repository, V7, doi: 10.17632/btchxktzyw.7

About Gunther Eysenbach:

Dr Eysenbach is the founder, CEO, and executive editor of JMIR Publications, a leading open access publisher in the fields of digital health, health care, and technology. He is also an adjunct professor at the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria, Canada.

His seminal publications can be found on Google Scholar.

About JMIR Publications:

JMIR Publications, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024, is a leading open access digital health research publisher. As a pioneer in open access publishing, JMIR Publications is committed to driving innovation in scholarly communications, advancing digital health research, and promoting open science principles. Our portfolio features 35 open access, peer-reviewed journals dedicated to the dissemination of high-quality research in the field of digital health, including the Journal of Medical Internet Research, as well as cross-disciplinary journals such as JMIR Research Protocols and the new title JMIR XR & Spatial Computing.