Indian Institute of Science leads national count in global Stanford-Elsevier researchers list

UPDATE - follow-up to Stanford-Elsevier World's Top 2% Scientists: IISc, IITs, Jadavpur University are top Indian institutes in global scientists list: The Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru holds the highest count of researchers from any Indian institute in the 2026 Stanford-Elsevier World's Top 2% Scientists career-long list, with 139 researchers included.

Institution Breakdown

IIT Delhi follows with 114 researchers, while IIT Kharagpur has 97, IIT Madras has 81, and IIT Bombay records 73. Overall, 3,898 researchers linked to 1,185 Indian institutions feature in this career-long compilation.

Other Institutes

Additional public institutions on the roster include IIT Roorkee with 62 researchers, IIT Kanpur with 55, Jadavpur University with 48, and Banaras Hindu University with 44. Private universities such as BITS Pilani and SRM Institute of Science and Technology also feature with 24 and 20 researchers respectively.

Methodology

The list relies on Scopus citation records and a composite citation score that measures citations, h-index, and authorship positions across 22 broad scientific fields and 174 sub-fields.

Context

This global database uses standardised citation indicators to measure the impact of scientific work rather than acting as a direct measure of an institution's overall research output. The Stanford-Elsevier project publishes separate lists for career-long impact and single-year performance to track research contributions.