Indian Institute of Science leads national representation on global researchers index

The Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru leads all Indian institutions with 139 researchers on the career-long list of the 2026 Stanford-Elsevier World's Top 2% Scientists database. IIT Delhi follows closely with 114 researchers, while IIT Kharagpur records 97, IIT Madras has 81, and IIT Bombay counts 73. Across the entire country, a total of 3,898 researchers from 1,185 institutions feature in this career-long compilation. Published by Elsevier and prepared by Stanford-affiliated researchers, the index uses standardised citation indicators to measure the impact of scientific work rather than total research output. The database evaluates scholars using Scopus records and a composite citation score that accounts for total citations, the h-index, co-authorship, and authorship position across 22 broad fields and 174 sub-fields. Several other public and technical institutions also secure significant representation on the global roster. IIT Roorkee accounts for 62 researchers, followed by IIT Kanpur with 55 and Jadavpur University with 48. Banaras Hindu University reports 44 names, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has 40, the University of Delhi includes 38, and IIT Guwahati has 37. Additional public institutions on the list feature the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research alongside Vellore Institute of Technology with 35 each, IIT (BHU) Varanasi with 33, AIIMS New Delhi with 30, and PGIMER Chandigarh with 29. Private and deemed universities also appear in the data. The Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology reports 34 faculty members across its network, while BITS Pilani has 24. SRM Institute of Science and Technology and Siksha O Anusandhan each record 20 researchers, Amity University counts 18, and Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences has 17. The database maintains separate datasets for career-long impact and single-year performance to measure different aspects of scholarly output.

Context

These global rankings help highlight the scale of academic research happening across Indian universities and laboratories. The database relies purely on published citation metrics rather than peer reputation surveys to measure research influence over time.