The 2026 Stanford/Elsevier World’s Top 2% of Scientists List was released in October. The list, which is produced annually and is available in a publicly accessible database, ranks the world’s most-cited scientists and provides an overview of their research impact.

A total of eight colleagues in Linguistics and English Language were included in the list this year: Gavin Brookes, Vaclav Brezina, Jonathan Culpeper, Christopher Hart, Judit Kormos, Alison Mackey, Jason Rothman, and Elena Semino (along with a number of emeritus and former colleagues).

Professor Luke Harding, who leads Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster, said: “Congratulations to all colleagues involved. It’s wonderful that once again the influence of research conducted in Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster has been recognised in this way. The number of colleagues on the list highlights the quality and reach of our research, and the significant part it plays in a wide number of areas of linguistics”.

The list is compiled based on Elsevier’s Scopus database. It uses metrics like h-index, co-authorship adjustments, and a composite citation score (c-score) to gauge a scientist’s influence rather than relying purely on publication counts. The top 100,000 or those in the top 2% of their field are included in the list.