The list of Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) published each year by Clarivate occupies a special place in the academic landscape, due to its use in the Shanghai rankings. This article looks at the evolution of this list, based on material communicated between 2001 and 2023 by its various producers (the Institute for Scientific Information, Thomson Reuters and Clarivate) on their respective websites. Three main phases in its trajectory have then been identified. The first is characterised by the creation of a database (2001–2011), the second by the affirmation of an indicator (2012–2018) and the third by the weakening of a strategy (2019–2023). An analysis of this trajectory provides a better understanding of the importance of this list and the challenges it faces today, in a context where some of the key issues of research evaluation and scientific integrity are being called into question.

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Handling Editor: Rodrigo Costas

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