Even in his fourth year of retirement, Nebraska’s Fred Luthans remains ranked among the world’s most cited researchers.
The George Holmes Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Management was recently included in two publications listing the top one percent of scientists whose work has most often been cited in other research papers.
Luthans was included in the 2017 Top 1 Percent Citations list by Web of Science, an online scientific citation index service, which featured researchers from around the world in all fields of study. Scientometrics, a peer-reviewed academic journal, also ranked Luthans among the top 1 percent of all business and economics professors cited worldwide in the last 10 years.
In the Scientometrics article, Luthans was rated above all Big Ten management professors and tied for No. 34 among highly-cited papers.
On the h-index, which measures productivity and the impact of citations, Luthans is tied for 10th highest overall alongside economics Nobel Laureate J.J. Heckman. In Google Scholar’s i10-index, Luthans has a score of 220, which denotes the number of publications in which he has 10 or more citations.
“The h-index is important because it objectively measures the impact of your research,” said Luthans. “The h-index is recognized by faculty because it’s how promotions happen and how grants are awarded. To put it in perspective, recent economics and finance Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler’s current h-index is 96 and i-10 is 155.”
Luthans’ current Google Scholar profile stands at more than 68,000 citations. Digital Commons recently indicated the nearly 350,000 downloads of his articles are one of the highest. Additionally, a recent study in the Academy of Management Learning and Education, determined him to be the most frequently cited author in organizational behavior textbooks used by management students.
“Fred’s impact in management education is far reaching,” said Kathy Farrell, dean of the College of Business. “The Scientometrics article finds Fred is one of the top 50 most influential scientists in the field of Economics and Business based on citation rankings. This is a tremendous accomplishment and testament to how his work regarding positive psychological capital has impacted businesses and management research. His work has also impacted our students through his teachings over the course of his more than 50-year career.
“Many of our alumni consider Fred as one of their most impactful and memorable faculty members.”
As one of the founders of the organizational behavior approach to management, Luthans created the field of psychological capital and integrated positive psychology into organizational behavior. Through his research, Luthans played a crucial role in determining how the field of organizational behavior is defined. Learn more about his career.
