Research institutions in Saudi Arabia are using the world university rankings to encourage top scientists to change their main affiliation. According to the "Nature" website, the Spanish consulting company SIRIS Academic recently released a report that in the past 10 years, dozens of global highly cited scientists have transferred their main affiliation to Saudi Arabia, which in turn has improved the country's universities. World Ranking.

The report analyzed the Clarivate Global Highly Cited Researchers list and found that between 2014 and 2022, the number of researchers on the list mainly affiliated with Saudi Arabia increased from 27 to 109. Their research work is spread across many disciplines, and many of them have secondary affiliations in countries such as Spain, the UK, Germany and India.

Of the 109, some had primary affiliation with Saudi Arabia, others had no relatively formal academic employment in the country, and at least 44, or about 40 percent, were only visiting fellows or had only research fellowships.

"The affiliation is not related to work for the purpose of improving the ranking of research institutions, which is not in line with good scientific norms." Pere Puigdomènech, a member of the European Science Foundation's Research Integrity Forum, commented.

The data show that in 2022, 0.44% of researchers in Saudi Arabia will be highly cited scientists, compared with 0.19% in the United States and 0.08% in Germany. “The high number of highly cited scientists is the main reason why some Saudi Arabian universities are among the top 150 globally,” says Domingo Docampo, a mathematician at the University of Vigo in Spain who was not involved in the report.

Although the report's analysis of "researcher principal affiliation switching" is recent, the practice is not new. Since 2010, top scientists around the world have said they have been offered funding from Saudi Arabian universities in exchange for their membership.