By EHIGIMETOR IGBAUGBA

The University of Calabar (UniCal) says four of its academics have been named among the world’s top two per cent of scientists in the 2026 Elsevier/Stanford Global Ranking.

The university’s Public Relations Unit through its Public Relations Officer, Mr Effiong Eyo, disclosed this on Saturday in a statement in Calabar.

The statement described the recognition as a boost to the institution’s global research visibility.

The university listed the scholars to include; Prof. Edet Aniekan, in Engineering, with 23 citations and Dr Ikeuba Alexander, in Enabling and Strategic Technologies, with 26 citations.

Others are; Prof. Meremikwu Madu, Clinical Medicine, with 35 citations as well as Prof. Chukwuemeka Okafor, Enabling and Strategic Technologies, also with 35 citations.

According to the statement, the recognition is based on the latest release of the Elsevier/Stanford author databases, which cover citation indicators upto the end of 2025, for career-long impact and the 2025 calendar year, for single-year impact.

It added that the feat was captured in the Nigerian University Representation Analysis independently compiled by Dr Valentine Owan of the university, from the official Elsevier/Stanford 2026 data.

According to the statement, the analysis was conducted by extracting Nigerian records from both databases.

It added that it also grouped authors according to their university affiliations and counting each author once, within the relevant database.

The statement explained that affiliations linked to constituent colleges or teaching hospitals were grouped under their parent universities where the relationships were clear.

“However, research institutes, standalone hospitals, government organisations and polytechnics were not assigned to universities in the analysis,” it explained.

Quoting Owan, the statement clarified that the rankings measured the number of authors associated with each university in the respective databases.

It added that this should not be interpreted as a ranking of universities by research quality or overall institutional performance.

According to the statement, inclusion of the four academics in the global ranking underscore their research visibilityand represent a source of pride for the university community.

“The recognition further highlighted the contributions of UniCal scholars to research in Engineering, Clinical Medicine as well as Enabling and Strategic Technologies,” it said. (NAN)