Science Magazine has just released an update of it’s list of Twitter’s most popular researchers – now expanded to “100 of the most followed scientists on the social media platform”. Having played around with the data, here’s an alternative listing, based on the Engagement Index (E-Index) – a measure I admittedly just made up! (jump straight to the list)
The original list got quite a bit of flack for its lack of diversity, and who it missed off. The update corrects this a little, but the ranking it is still based on number of followers – a valid index of popularity, but probably not a lot else.
The good news is that the folks at Science have once again kindly made their raw data available, allowing alternative rankings to be played around with.
Looking down the list, I was particularly interested in active and influential researchers who are also active on Twitter – fully engaged researchers if you like. A really quick and dirty way to get a handle on this is to rank by the product of H-index and number of tweets.
H-index is a useful measure of publication rate and citation rate. Like all measures of performance it has its problems. I like it as a measure of academic engagement though as it compresses the range of achievement across the spectrum – early investigators can rack up an H-index in single digits quite fast, while you have to be a stellar performer to get much above 40 or so.
Moving over to social media, an H-index equivalent in Twitter would have been useful, but has yet to be invented. In its absence, number of tweets is a really crude proxy for social activity – if not quite engagement.
By multiplying H-index and total number of tweets and dividing by 1000, you can derive a really crude engagement index (E-index if you like). It’s deeply flawed. But it does give an indication of who is both a productive academic and active on Twitter.
Part of the reasoning behind the E-index was that the numbers were all there and ready to be processed in the Science Magazine data. Unfortunately though, the H-index was only available for the initial 50 scientists. By the time I discovered this, I was committed though, and so spent some time gathering H-index values for the remaining scientists using Scopus – until I discovered that the Scopus values didn’t match the original Science Magazine values.
To cut a long and tedious story short, the E-index for all of Science Magazine’s 100 most popular researchers on Twitter (and a couple more to boot) has been calculated using the Science values for total tweets, and Scopus data for H-index values. These are based on articles published after 1995, and so reflect academic activity over the past couple of decades.
The E-index ranked list is below, for all Science Magazine researchers with an E-index greater than zero. I haven’t numbered them (although they are in descending order) as I don’t think placement position in the list is that relevant. And I suspect there may be the odd data error here.
The list is what it is – a useful way of getting a handle on academically and social media-active researchers. It isn’t comprehensive. It probably isn’t that accurate. And it certainly doesn’t say much about some of the most interesting scientists on Twitter. I found it an interesting exercise though – specially as it completely mixes up the order of the list compared to that based on twitter followers alone.
And me? I decided to leave myself out of this list. If you want to know where I would be, you can get the numbers easily enough and do the math. Not that it’s that important.
Active researchers on twitter, ranked by E-index.
Ryugo Hayano, Nuclear physicist
124,000 followers @hayano
H-index: 64 E-index: 3616
Total number of tweets: 56,500
University of Tokyo, Japan
Jonathan Eisen*, Biologist
25,600 followers @phylogenomics
H-index: 65 E-index: 3070
Total number of tweets: 47,237
University of California, Davis, United States
Michael Eisen, Biologist
12,300 followers @mbeisen
H-index: 56 E-index: 918
Total number of tweets: 16,400
University of California, Berkeley, United States
Michael E. Mann*, Meteorologist
21,700 followers @MichaelEMann
H-index: 43 E-index: 882
Total number of tweets: 20,500
Pennsylvania State University, United States
David “Danny” Blanchflower, Economist
24,600 followers @D_Blanchflower
H-index: 19 E-index: 800
Total number of tweets: 42,094
Dartmouth College, United States
Richard Florida, Economist
177,000 followers @Richard_Florida
H-index: 17 E-index: 779
Total number of tweets: 45,800
University of Toronto, Canada
Dorothy Bishop, Neuropsychologist
15,400 followers @deevybee
H-index: 50 E-index: 740
Total number of tweets: 14,800
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Tim Noakes, Sports scientist
48,200 followers @ProfTimNoakes
H-index: 56 E-index: 734
Total number of tweets: 13,100
University of Cape Town, South Africa
Eric Topol*, Geneticist
46,100 followers @EricTopol
H-index: 130 E-index: 655
Total number of tweets: 5,035
The Scripps Research Institute, United States
Karen James, Biologist
12,900 followers @kejames
H-index: 10 E-index: 626
Total number of tweets: 62,600
Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, United States
Melanie Greenberg, Clinical psychologist
37,600 followers @DrMelanieG
H-index: 7 E-index: 576
Total number of tweets: 82,300
Private practice, United States
Mike Brown, Astronomer
18,700 followers @plutokiller
H-index: 50 E-index: 494
Total number of tweets: 9,888
California Institute of Technology, United States
Trisha Greenhalgh*, Public health scientist
12,200 followers @trishgreenhalgh
H-index: 41 E-index: 480
Total number of tweets: 11,700
Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
Daniel MacArthur, Genomicist
14,500 followers @dgmacarthur
H-index: 23 E-index: 363
Total number of tweets: 15,800
Harvard Medical School, United States
Carolyn Porco, Planetary scientist
26,700 followers @carolynporco
H-index: 27 E-index: 348
Total number of tweets: 12,900
Space Science Institute, United States
Ben Goldacre, Physician
345,000 followers @bengoldacre
H-index: 7 E-index: 332
Total number of tweets: 47,400
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
Justin Wolfers, Economist
62,600 followers @JustinWolfers
H-index: 18 E-index: 299
Total number of tweets: 16,600
University of Michigan, United States
William Easterly*, Economist
63,200 followers @bill_easterly
H-index: 30 E-index: 295
Total number of tweets: 9,817
New York University, United States
Dani Rodrik, Economist
45,500 followers @rodrikdani
H-index: 28 E-index: 294
Total number of tweets: 10,500
Institute for Advanced Study, United States
Katie Mack, Astrophysicist
14,600 followers @AstroKatie
H-index: 6 E-index: 266
Total number of tweets: 44,300
University of Melbourne, Australia
Richard Wiseman, Psychologist
135,000 followers @RichardWiseman
H-index: 11 E-index: 249
Total number of tweets: 22,600
University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Economist
164,000 followers @JeffDSachs
H-index: 41 E-index: 240
Total number of tweets: 5,865
Columbia University, United States
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Cognitive Neuroscientist
15,200 followers @sjblakemore
H-index: 142 E-index: 238
Total number of tweets: 5,661
University College London, United Kingdom
Jerry Coyne, Biologist
20,100 followers @Evolutionistrue
H-index: 30 E-index: 221
Total number of tweets: 7,380
University of Chicago, United States
Catherine Qualtrough, Astrophysicist
13,700 followers @CatherineQ
H-index: 2 E-index: 214
Total number of tweets: 107,000
University of North Carolina, Charlotte, United States
P. Z. Myers, Biologist
156,000 followers @pzmyers
H-index: 8 E-index: 206
Total number of tweets: 25,700
University of Minnesota, Morris, United States
Uta Frith, Cognitive scientist
13,000 followers @utafrith
H-index: 54 E-index: 197
Total number of tweets: 3,645
University College London, United Kingdom
Danielle N Lee, Ecologist
11,800 followers @DNLee5
H-index: 3 E-index: 196
Total number of tweet
Cornell University, United States
Phil Plait, Astronomer
325,000 followers @BadAstronomer
H-index:4 E-index: 189
Total number of tweets: 47,300
Bad Astronomy, United States
Sean Carroll, Theoretical physicist
33,800 followers @seanmcarroll
H-index: 24 E-index: 176
Total number of tweets: 7,352
California Institute of Technology, United States
Jim Al-Khalili, Theoretical physicist
60,900 followers @jimalkhalili
H-index: 19 E-index: 174
Total number of tweets: 9,165
University of Surrey, United Kingdom
Toshiyuki Masui, Computer scientist
122,000 followers @masui
H-index: 5 E-index: 150
Total number of tweets: 29,900
Keio University, Japan
Nouriel Roubini, Economist
313,000 followers @nouriel
H-index: 14 E-index: 143
Total number of tweets: 10,200
New York University, United States
Robert Metcalfe, Computer scientist
16,600 followers @BobMetcalfe
H-index: 8 E-index: 130
Total number of tweets: 16,300
University of Texas, Austin, United States
Ves Dimov, Immunologist
14,300 followers @DrVes
H-index: 4 E-index: 129
Total number of tweets: 32,300
University of Chicago, United States
Mark Thoma, Economist
20,800 followers @MarkThoma
H-index: 3 E-index: 126
Total number of tweets: 42,100
University of Oregon, United States
Vaughan Bell, Neuroscientist
24,200 followers @vaughanbell
H-index: 11 E-index: 121
Total number of tweets: 10,997
King’s College London, United Kingdom
Matt Lieberman, Neuroscientist
15,000 followers @social_brains
H-index: 38 E-index: 119
Total number of tweets: 3,128
University of California, Los Angeles, United States
Robert Simpson, Astronomer
22,300 followers @orbitingfrog
H-index: 10 E-index: 116
Total number of tweets: 11,600
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Paul Krugman+, Economist
1,250,000 followers @NYTimesKrugman
H-index: 20 E-index: 115
Total number of tweets: 5,754
Princeton University, United States
Tyler Cowen, Economist
45,600 followers @tylercowen
H-index: 10 E-index: 112
Total number of tweets: 11,200
George Mason University, United States
Gary King*, Political scientist
19,800 followers @kinggary
H-index: 35 E-index: 109
Total number of tweets: 3,104
Harvard University, United States
Brian Krueger, Genomicist
12,800 followers @LabSpaces
H-index: 3 E-index: 107
Total number of tweets: 35,800
Duke University, United States
Sinan Aral, Information sciences
19,100 followers @sinanaral
H-index: 18 E-index: 103
Total number of tweets: 5,696
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
Micah Allen^, Neuroscientist
11,800 followers @neuroconscience
H-index: 13 E-index: 13
Total number of tweets: 4,294
University College London, United Kingdom
David Grinspoon, Astrobiologist
15,600 followers @DrFunkySpoon
H-index: 9 E-index: 88
Total number of tweets: 9,736
Library of Congress, United States
Marion Nestle, Nutritionist
118,000 followers @marionnestle
H-index: 22 E-index: 87
Total number of tweets: 3,944
New York University, United States
Atul Gawande, Surgeon/public health scientist
98,100 followers @Atul_Gawande
H-index: 36 E-index: 77
Total number of tweets: 2,139
Harvard University, United States
Danah Boyd, Social media scientist
103,000 followers @zephoria
H-index: 16 E-index: 76
Total number of tweets: 4,755
Microsoft Research, United States
Lisa Randall, Theoretical Physicist
12,000 followers @lirarandall
H-index: 31 E-index: 60
Total number of tweets: 2,215
Harvard University, United States
Freek Vonk, Biologist
68,400 followers @freekvonk
H-index: 10 E-index: 65
Total number of tweets: 6,523
Naturalis Biodiversity Center, the Netherlands
Paul Bloom, Psychologist
15,700 followers @paulbloomatyale
H-index: 32 E-index: 64
Total number of tweets: 2,009
Yale University, United States
Daniel Levitin, Neuroscientist
15,800 followers @danlevitin
H-index: 20 E-index: 61
Total number of tweets: 3,040
McGill University, Canada
Robert Geller, Seismologist
12,100 followers @Rjgeller
H-index: 16 E-index: 60
Total number of tweets: 3,772
University of Tokyo, Japan
Amy Cuddy, Social psychologist
21,300 followers @amyjccuddy
H-index: 15 E-index: 60
Total number of tweets: 4,017
Harvard University, United States
Richard Dawkins, Biologist
1,030,000 followers @RichardDawkins
H-index: 3 E-index: 58
Total number of tweets: 19,300
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Francis Collins*, Physician-geneticist
34,200 followers @NIHDirector
H-index: 108 E-index: 57
Total number of tweets: 531
National Institutes of Health, United States
Lucie Green, Astrophysicist
11,800 followers @Dr_Lucie
H-index: 13 E-index: 13
Total number of tweets: 4,294
University College London, United Kingdom
John Allen Paulos, Mathematician
14,400 followers @JohnAllenPaulos
H-index: 12 E-index: 50
Total number of tweets: 4,167
Temple University, United States
Dan Ariely*, Psychologist/behavioral economist
74,300 followers @danariely
H-index: 42 E-index: 46
Total number of tweets: 1,098
Duke University, United States
Austan Goolsbee, Economist
47,700 followers @Austan_Goolsbee
H-index: 16 E-index: 42
Total number of tweets: 2,624
University of Chicago, United States
Lawrence M. Krauss, Theoretical physicist
104,000 followers @LKrauss1
H-index: 24 E-index: 39
Total number of tweets: 1,632
Arizona State University, United States
Amy Mainzer, Astronomer
14,700 followers @AmyMainzer
H-index: 17 E-index: 39
Total number of tweets: 2,295
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, United States
Dean Baker, Economist
21,300 followers @DeanBaker13
H-index: 5 E-index: 36
Total number of tweets: 7,285
Center for Economic and Policy Research, United States
Daniel Gilbert+, Psychologist
16,200 followers @DanTGilbert
H-index: 27 E-index: 35
Total number of tweets: 1,301
Harvard University, United States
Adam Grant, Organizational psychologist
26,500 followers @AdamMGrant
H-index: 24 E-index: 35
Total number of tweets: 1,452
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, United States
Kaushik Basu, Economist
45,800 followers @kaushikcbasu
H-index: 15 E-index: 31
Total number of tweets: 2,089
World Bank
David Eagleman, Neuroscientist
20,100 followers @davideagleman
H-index: 20 E-index: 30
Total number of tweets: 1,482
Baylor College of Medicine, United States
Pamela L. Gay, Astronomer
18,400 followers @starstryder
H-index: 2 E-index: 26
Total number of tweets: 12,900
Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, United States
J. Craig Venter, Genomicist
24,200 followers @JCVenter
H-index: 69 E-index: 26
Total number of tweets: 373
J. Craig Venter Institute, United States
Steven Pinker, Cognitive scientist
145,000 followers @sapinker
H-index: 15 E-index: 25
Total number of tweets: 1,674
Harvard University, United States
Marcus du Sautoy, Mathematician
34,800 followers @MarcusduSautoy
H-index: 7 E-index: 25
Total number of tweets: 3,572
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Alice Roberts, Clinical anatomist
68,900 followers @DrAliceRoberts
H-index: 3 E-index: 25
Total number of tweets: 8,333
University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Hans Rosling, Global health scientist
185,000 followers @HansRosling
H-index: 8 E-index: 22
Total number of tweets: 2,733
Karolinska Institute, Sweden
Jean Francois Gari̩py, Neuroscientist
18,100 followers @JFGariepy
H-index: 6 E-index: 19
Total number of tweets: 3,247
Duke University, United States
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist
2,460,000 followers @neiltyson
H-index: 4 E-index: 16
Total number of tweets: 4,001
Hayden Planetarium, United States
Robert Winston, Fertility scientist
32,200 followers @ProfRWinston
H-index: 34 E-index: 15
Total number of tweets: 446
Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Sam Harris, Neuroscientist
231,000 followers @SamHarrisOrg
H-index: 5 E-index: 14
Total number of tweets: 2,725
Project Reason, United States
Helen Czerski, Physicist/oceanographer
12,300 followers @helenczerski
H-index: 5 E-index: 11
Total number of tweets: 2,211
University College London, United Kingdom
Sebastian Thrun+, Computer scientist
25,800 followers @SebastianThrun
H-index: 57 E-index: 11
Total number of tweets: 187
Stanford University, United States
Brian Cox, Physicist
1,450,000 followers @ProfBrianCox
H-index: 1 E-index: 10
Total number of tweets: 10,400
University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Simon Baron-Cohen, Psychopathologist
14,100 followers @sbaroncohen
H-index: 78 E-index: 9
Total number of tweets: 9
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Tim Berners-Lee, Computer scientist
183,000 followers @timberners_lee
H-index: 16 E-index: 9
Total number of tweets: 556
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
Oliver Sacks, Neurologist
77,800 followers @OliverSacks
H-index: 9 E-index: 7
Total number of tweets: 754
New York University, United States
Alexander Gerst, Astronaut
154,000 followers @Astro_Alex
H-index: 3 E-index: 7
Total number of tweets: 2,250
European Space Agency
Sylvia Earle, Marine biologist/oceanographer
35,100 followers @SylviaEarle
H-index: 4 E-index: 7
Total number of tweets: 1,625
National Geographic, United States
Joseph E. Stiglitz+, Economist
35,200 followers @JosephEStiglitz
H-index: 26 E-index: 4
Total number of tweets: 166
Columbia University, United States
Brian Greene, Theoretical physicist
39,900 followers @bgreene
H-index: 19 E-index: 4
Total number of tweets: 197
Columbia University, United States
Pascal Wallisch, Neuroscientist
15,400 followers @Pascallisch
H-index: 3 E-index: 3
Total number of tweets: 1,118
New York University, United States
Nassim Taleb, Statistician
79,100 followers @nntaleb
H-index: 7 E-index: 3
Total number of tweets: 427
New York University, United States
Karen Nyberg, Astronaut
103,000 followers @AstroKarenN
H-index:3 E-index: 3
Total number of tweets: 856
NASA, United States
Seth Shostak, Astronomer
14,800 followers @SethShostak
H-index: 5 E-index: 1
Total number of tweets: 299
SETI Institute, United States
Michio Kaku, Theoretical physicist
315,000 followers @michiokaku
H-index: 1 E-index: 1
Total number of tweets: 1,139
The City College of New York, United States
Most of the scientists I heard of are near the bottom of your list. Why is there a hat expert on this list?
Damn, did that hat expert slip through the net? 😉
Wow Dr. Maynard, you really are one of those who work to pHARM children. We had hoped you would be one of many honest doctors & scientists standing with us on the side of truth once you realized the real science.
Thank you for this list. We will use it wisely.