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Louise Bloom comments on Thomson Reuters report on 'The World's Most Influential Scientific Minds' which features few scientists based in developing countries

A new SciDev.net article entitled '"Highly influential" scientists still rare in the developing world' examines the dearth of developing world scientists included in Thomson Reuters' The World's Most Influential Scientific Minds: 2014 report.

The report tracks the influence of researchers by analysing citations in scientific papers. In this year's list of highly-cited researchers, only 86 out of approximately 3,200 are based at institutions in developing countries. One of the main reasons is access to opportunities, as Louise Bloom explains: 

Unfortunately there are a lot of inequalities that developing countries face...Not many people have had as many opportunities in accessing education but they still have the skills, desire and demand for more scientific development.

In the article, report author, David Pendlebury, also explains that though citations are important, they only provide a partial picture of research impact. This is because work that is more practical or locally relevant may not be as well-represented in research publications. 

Read the article>>

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