Essential Science Indicators (ESI) is an analytical database that identifies top-performing research in the Web of Science Core Collection by analyzing articles and reviews from more than 11,000 journals worldwide. It ranks papers, researchers, institutions, etc. across 22 broad research fields based on citation performance.
The ESI Top 1% designation highlights elite scholarly achievements in top research fields, Highly Cited Papers and Highly Cited Researchers ranked in the top 1% by citations compared to peers in the same category over a rolling 10-year window, with lists updated bimonthly. These Top 1% lists showcase leading fields with aggregated high-impact outputs, top papers that exceed field and year citation thresholds, and influential researchers recognized for their substantial contributions to the research fields.