If publishing influential scientific papers were an Olympic sport, the earth sciences team at the Australian National University would be our gold medallists.
A survey ranking the world's top 50 research institutions, based on the number of times their research papers are cited by other journals, reveals ANU's geoscientists are well ahead of the pack as Australia's most widely quoted scientists.
With a tally of more than 1000 research papers published over five years, from January 2003 to December 2007, the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences notched up more than 6200 worldwide citations or quotes in other scientific publications.
''That's roughly an average of six citations for every research paper, which is pretty good when you consider the Australian average is around two citations,'' the school's director and professor of seismology, Professor Brian Kennett, said.
The individual citation score for some members of the ANU geoscience team were higher, with several research papers ''quickly hitting the 300 mark'' and one of Professor Kennett's publications on seismic waves ''going through the roof'' at 800 citations.
The Essential Science Indicators survey, based on data from 11,000 journals around the world, ranks the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences among the top 6 per cent of the world's universities in its field. The ANU's Fenner School of Environment also scored well, ranking among the top 20 per cent of the world's environmental and ecology research institutions. After collating the details of citations across 22 areas of research, eight Australian universities were placed in the top 10 per cent of research institutions worldwide the ANU, Melbourne, Monash, Sydney, NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and Adelaide universities.
The results confirm the ANU's geoscientists are among the world's best, as does the tally of annual international awards listed on the ANU earth sciences website. Last year's swag of more than 20 awards and honours includes a gold medal from the Geological Society of Japan and awards from the American Geophysical Union and European Geosciences Union. Professor Kennett was also awarded the 2008 Gold Medal for Geophysics by the Royal Astronomical Society in London.
''We do pretty well in this field but we need to do more to stop industry poaching our best brains,'' Professor Kennett said.
''We see a constant talent drain, with a lot of graduates taking off for Western Australia to work with the mining industry because the money is far better than a postdoc research grant.
''The problem is, the industry is not going to get the best value out of this situation, because they're employing our students before they're fully trained.'' According to Professor Kennett, the answer is better funding for geoscience research and greater acknowledgment of its national importance.
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