Australia’s researchers are more important than ever

At the University of Queensland a team led by (from left) Trent Munro, Paul Young and Keith Chappell are testing a COVID-19 vaccine based on their research work, underlining the value of Australia’s researchers.

This year, 2020, has been like no other. First came the bushfire disaster, then the COVID-19 crisis.

One consequence was that the value of the research which Australia’s scientists, academics, and other specialists carry out in our universities and research institutions became clearer than ever.

Much of the research community was mobilised to carry out vital work, often under intense pressure in emergency conditions. People from across the spectrum of research fields – immunologists, biochemists, epidemiologists, public health specialists, legal experts, economists, psychologists, educators, social workers and more – came together to deal with complex problems in a pandemic situation, the scope and intensity of which no one living alive today has ever dealt with.

This year in The Australian’s Research 2020 magazine, which you can read online at theaustralian.com.au/research we salute our researchers, who have proved their value to Australia as never before. Given the debt we owe to our research community, this year’s edition of the Research magazine is more relevant than ever.

Again, using data mined from the web by research analytics firm League of Scholars, we name Australia’s top researchers in 255 individual fields of research. We make this choice objectively based on where individual researchers publish and how many citations they have. We also name the Australian university, or other research institution, which leads in each of these fields, and this choice is also determined by the data. The winning institution is the one whose researchers’ papers – published in the top 20 journals in the field in the past five years – has the most citations.

The Australian’s Research 2020 magazine can be read online at theaustralian.com.au/research

In a few cases, well-known names appear as the leading researchers. For example, psychiatrist Patrick McGorry, a tireless campaigner for improving youth mental, who was named as Australian of the Year in 2010, is the leader in the field of psychiatry.

But the vast majority of the researchers whose names are revealed in these pages are not widely known, except to their peers. This magazine is an opportunity for their excellence to be recognised, and for us all to learn about fascinating avenues of inquiries and important discoveries which would otherwise be little noticed by the wider public.

It is also an opportunity to shine a light on the research work of lesser-known universities and institutions. While the Group of Eight universities carry most of Australia’s research load, many other institutions shine. For example, we find that the University of Wollongong is Australia’s leading research institution in algebra, while the University of Southern Queensland leads in the field of composite materials.

Just as we have found Australia’s top researcher in each field, we have also looked globally to identify the world’s best in each of the 255 fields of research we examine. In nine of these fields, the top researcher in the world is in Australia.

This is the third year that The Australian and League of Scholars have worked together to publish the Research magazine in this format, and each year we look for new stories, relevant to the Australian research community, which can be drawn from the data.

This year we’ve chosen to examine the research collaboration which Australian universities undertake with industry, and with the world’s top universities. We also looked at academic books, and have built a top 10 list.

There’s one final important thing to say about this year’s Research magazine: We also honour Australia’s 40 top researchers, who have made an outstanding contribution to their discipline over the course of their careers (in contrast to the research leader named in each field, who is there because of their recent performance).

And, also, we name 40 promising early career researchers who are strong candidates to be Australia’s research leaders of the future.

In the current environment, in which we may see major cuts to research funding that could hamper the prospects of our future research stars, it’s critical for universities and government to look to the future and plan how Australia’s coming generation of research talent can fulfil it’s potential.

Tim Dodd is higher education editor of The Australian. Paul McCarthy is CEO of League of Scholars.