Professor Alex Mitchell cited as one of ‘the world’s most influential scientific minds’

Professor Alex Mitchell, Honorary Professor of Psycho-oncology and Liaison Psychiatry, has been cited in a list of ‘the world’s most influential scientific minds’ by the influential Web of Science Group.

Professor Mitchell’s work concerns the recognition of mental disorders including depression, anxiety, alcohol problems and dementia. In order to improve recognition and the communication of these disorders he designed the Emotional Thermometer (ET) scale. The ET scale is a simple visual-analogue scale, it’s available to all at emotionthermometers.com. It is a freely available validated mood scale and has proved so popular that it’s been used all over the world.

Professor Mitchell said: “I am delighted to have received recognition for the work my team has been doing over the last 10 years in mental health – whilst in my NHS post at Leicestershire Partnership NHS trust – and I am very grateful for the support I have received from the University of Leicester.”

He has also researched the inadequate treatment of the very high rate of physical health complications in patients with severe mental illness, leading to changes in the way clinicians approach comorbidity. He has also created a self-help program for cancer patients and relatives available at cancerstories.info – this records the real-life narratives of how patients coped with cancer and offers valuable tips for coping with cancer.

Professor Andrew Fry, College Director of Research, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Alex’s outstanding work has again been recognised in this list. He is not only a world-leading researcher in his own field but also a great ambassador for the critically important working relationship we have between the University and local NHS Trusts."

The highly anticipated list identifies scientists and social scientists who produced multiple papers ranking in the top 1% by citations for their field and year of publication, demonstrating significant research influence among their peers.

Web of Science Group states: “Such consistent production of highly cited reports indicates that the work of these researchers has been repeatedly judged by their peers to be of notable significance and utility.”

David Pendlebury, Senior Citation Analyst at the Institute for Scientific Information said: “Recognition and support of these exceptional researchers represents an important activity for a nation or an institution’s plans for efficient and accelerated advancement. The Highly Cited Researchers list contributes to the identification of that small fraction of the researcher population that contributes disproportionately to extending the frontiers of knowledge. These researchers create gains for society, innovation and knowledge that make the world healthier, richer, more sustainable and more secure.”

The data are taken from 21 broad research fields within Essential Science Indicators, a component of InCites. The fields are defined by sets of journals and exceptionally, in the case of multidisciplinary journals such as Nature and Science, by a paper-by-paper assignment to a field based on an analysis of the cited references in the papers. This percentile-based selection method removes the citation advantage of older papers relative to recently published ones, since papers are weighed against others in the same annual cohort.